


Mr. Purrfect

by comeon_toparadise



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Fluff, Hybrids, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22916296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comeon_toparadise/pseuds/comeon_toparadise
Summary: han jisung is a bit smitten for the new kid in his class. however, he's yet to discover the older's not-so-little secret.[posted from my wattpad account seolunar]
Relationships: Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

han jisung is a bit smitten for the new kid in his class. however, he's yet to discover the older's not-so-little secret.


	2. 01. new guy

~🍓~

Jisung's pencil flicked repeatedly inside his fingers as he tapped his feet on the floors, trying his absolute hardest to listen to what his Math teacher was saying. The middle-aged man was droning on and on about something that pertained to sequences and whatnot, but the blond haired male couldn't find it within him to listen. The teacher's monotone voice coasted through his left ear and out the other, and no substantial information remained. Jisung's head was blank -- which wasn't a good thing since he was currently flunking math and needed to keep his grades up -- and his eyes were trained on _something else_ , something with smooth skin and soft grey curls that peeked out of an azure shaded beanie.

  
Jisung couldn't keep his eyes off the male seated at the corner towards the front. He'd never been fully able to ever since the the boy was first introduced as a new student to his class. Just like a majority of the other students in his class, he'd been transfixed with the new student's quaint looks and his quiet demeanor, and after he'd heard the boy speak for the first time, he'd replayed his words inside his head, enamoured by how silky smooth the boy's voice sounded when he spoke.

_"Hello. My name is Lee Minho, and I hope you all will take care of me."_

Truth be told, after that day (which just so happened to be nearly a week ago), Jisung hadn't heard the male utter a single word when classes were going on. The boy was a silent soul, one who preferred sitting at the corners of his classroom and was comfortable being alone and sheltered, clad in his oversized sweaters and colourful beanies. Jisung had watched Minho enough to know all about his fondness for those particular accessories, as well as the many earrings the shells of his ear were frequently pierced with.

As Mr. Shim turned around to jot down a couple of math exercises on the dry-erase board, Jisung's eyes followed Minho as the latter's lithe fingers accidentally dropped a blue pen, only for the male to catch the stationery before it could collide with ground in a quick, albeit elegant movement. The utmost _speed_ in which he caught the pen went unnoticed by a majority of the students in the class, but Jisung had witnessed it all with wide eyes, shock embedded into his features at how quick Minho had stopped the pen from falling.

Whilst the silver haired male had already gone back to copying down the exercises from the board, Jisung's eyes still refrained from leaving him. It was a very strange feeling, but Jisung could imagine himself staring at the taller as he engaged in mundane tasks all day. The curly haired male was like a magnet that drew Jisung in, an alluring personality that enticed his eyes and made him want to _keep on watching_.

"Fuckin' creep." Jisung winced when something sharp stung against the back of his head, and on instinct he propelled himself forward and turned around, glaring lazers at the boy that was _unfortunately_ seated behind him. "Stop staring at the poor kid you weirdo."

Jisung's nostrils flared in anger, and a hot blush crept along the skin of his cheeks. "I _wasn't_ staring at him. I was writing down the stuff on the board."

The boy blankly stared back at Jisung through his dark hair and rolled his eyes. He obnoxiously chewed on the gum in his mouth, purposefully taunting his friend with the sound it made. " _Right_. As if you expect me to believe _that_."

"Chew any louder and make Mr. Shim catch you bitch. I _dare you_ ," Jisung threatened, narrowing his eyes at the male.

Changbin rolled his eyes yet again. "Don't even _try_ to change the subject. Everyone can basically see how much you've been staring at that Minho guy these past few days. That's practically assault. I feel bad for the guy."

"Changbin, shut the fuck up," Jisung warned. His tone was low, and he hoped it sounded serious enough, but unsurprisingly, Changbin didn't look the least bit bothered by his harsh tone.

Though both males were close friends, they couldn't be more opposite in their looks and personality. Whilst Changbin was the physical embodiment of eye-liner, sharp words, hooded gazes and black graphic tshirts, Jisung was much brighter in comparison. His look comprised of muted coloured sweatshirts and skinny jeans, beach blond hair and surfer-like tan skin, and his words lacked the edge to them that his paler and shorter friend's own held. He was majoritively a people-pleaser, through and through.

"You can deny all you want, but I think you have a liking for the guy. You're _obsessed_ ," Changbin continued, popping the gum in his mouth. It was a wonder how the math teacher didn't even hear him. Or maybe he had, but he'd chosen not to speak for fear of sparking the student's anger. Changbin had quite the reputation of scaring away authority figures.

Jisung turned around, inhaling air through his nose and out his lips. He gripped onto his pencil, his fingernails digging into the wood.

"You can't ignore the truth forever. You're..." Jisung cringed when he felt his friend's hot breath on his shoulder, "... _whipped_."

"Eww get off me," Jisung shrugged Changbin off, glaring hard at the board. His grip on the pencil intensified, and he was majorly annoyed with himself that he was still blushing. "Fuck off, Bin."

"I'm watching you Jisung. Stare at him again and I'll be the first one to say 'I told you so'."

Jisung's breath shallowed in annoyance, pushing his friend's words to the corner of his mind. He then stared at the equations on his notebook, wondering what the fuck he was looking at. What even _was_ math? And who even had the _brilliant_ idea to introduce it to the Earth's already crumbling society?

Jisung was _pretty_ sure he was going to fail the subject. 

  
His hands twitched as his eyes continued to run over the many illegible and nonsensical equations on the pages of his notebook. No matter how many times he glared at them, wanting an answer to just _magically insert itself_ into his brain, nothing came.

And them, seamlessly and without warning, Minho's image wove itself into his vision. The window was open where the working male was seated, allowing light to filter in and shine on his body. The silver locks of his lustrous hair lit up into a shimmery white, and a halo seemed to surround his body in this galactic aura. He looked unreal, dazzling as if he was his own star within a galaxy that was made only for him, and him alone.

His dark lashes fluttered over his cheeks just as he blinked, and in less than a second, his eyes shifted over to meet Jisung's from across the room, deep and dark and admittedly puzzled.

Jisung almost lept at that second, and not because of Minho, but because of his _lovely_ friend known as Changbin. His tiny friend had taken the initiative to smack his shoulder _just as_ Minho's brown eyes had made contact with his, cheerfully reprimanding him due to the fact that he'd caught Jisung staring at Minho _yet_ again.

His actions could _not_ have happened at at worse time.

"Changbin, _what the hell_?!" Jisung whisper-yelled. His ears felt like they'd been dipped into a pool of molten lava due to the extreme wave of embarrassment that crashed over him at that point in time. "What the hell."

"You stared at him again. Admit it. You have a little crush." Changbin's smirk was smug as hell, and Jisung wanted to sucker-punch him in the face.

"You didn't have to hit me like that, and I do _not_ have a crush on the guy," Jisung exhaled. He couldn't help it, he stared in Minho's direction again, disappointment pricking his chest like a thousand little needles when he saw that the grey haired male had long since focused his attention on something else.

Their moment -- whatever moment _that_ had been -- was _over_ , and now Minho probably thought Jisung was some noob who got smacked by his friends for fun and had a staring problem.

"I bet you won't even talk to him until the year's over," Changbin whispered and laughed.

" _Shut up_."

"Looking at him, he's way out of your league man. Just accept your fate."

" _You're_ one to talk. You're the one always turning into a blushing mess whenever you see _Felix_ ," Jisung snapped back, referring to the white haired scary Australian in another class who probably had more piercings on his body than books in his bag and was possibly the only other person in the school who could be more 'emo' than Changbin.

Changbin's mouth flapped open like a gaping fish, and he tried to defend himself even though no tangible words came out.

"That's what I thought. I have more of a chance of _talking_ to Minho than you actually striking up a decent conversation with Felix," Jisung continued.

"You're an asshole."

"Takes one to know one."

Changbin scoffed, combing his fingers through his hair in annoyance. He always got like that when Jisung brought up his situation with Felix. He blew the gum inside his mouth blew until it popped, and the loud sound bounced off the walls of the classroom.

Mr. Shim's eyes landed on Changbin, but as he was about to say something the student's stare alone managed to shut him up immediately.

~🍓~

  
**a/n** : i have no set chapter length for this fic, but i think they will be shorter than usual because i dont think i can write long chaptered fics right now lmao

thoughts?


	3. 02. dare you.

~🍓~

Jisung was sat the library, finally getting his shoulders to relax after that stressful workout his body had experienced during gym class. He'd never been the athletic type, and he only saw exercise as a waste of time and energy. He was the kind of person that loved food _too much_ to give it up just for him to obtain this appearance of being _healthy_.

  
The air conditioning of the library washed over his skin, cooling him down much faster than any locker room shower ever could. First of all, gym showers were _not_ Jisung's thing either -- since he wasn't the most confident about his body -- but he'd partook in them solely because he didn't like how he felt after he went to gym class, which was gross and sweaty. So the blond really didn't have a choice on the matter, and most of his visits encompassed a speedy race towards the showers as soon as the shrill bell rang.

 _But_ , that almost _didn't_ happen today. And why, you ask?

Because of _Lee_ freaking _Minho_.

The silver-haired boy had been present at gym class (because he was now part of Jisung's class, _duh_ ), managing to ace all of coach Kim's exercises with jaw-dropping stamina and speed that left everyone in the class speechless. Even the most athletic boy in the class, Jung Jinseob, Minho'd left in the dust after the two competed in a 100 meter sprint. And the most surprising fact was that he didn't even break a sweat doing so, his pretty face showing no signs of tiredness or agitation. Whilst everyone else sweated like pigs under the hot sun, Minho was stood there like an unbothered beacon of light, a soft grey beanie perched over his glinting silver locks. He'd looked so _cute_ just standing there like that, and once again all Jisung could do was _stare_.

And when gym class was over, Jisung had internally freaked out about _three times_ just because he thought Minho was heading to the showers as well, _only_ for him to find out at the last moment that the taller wasn't even planning on using the showers _at all_.

Jisung sighed as he thought over the events of today. Just like everyday after Minho came, he'd spent countless amounts of time sneaking glances at the taller, wondering how someone could look so _pretty_ yet so mysterious at the same time. He wanted to know more about Minho, but he was too much of a nervous coward to do such a thing. He couldn't even _look_ the guy directly in the eye.

He cringed when he recollected their brief 'conversation' at the gym, and the freezing air condition could do nothing to get rid of the heat that took over his skin at that very second.

"Hey, uh..." Minho'd started, addressing him directly for the first time. His eyes were trained entirely on Jisung's face, reminding the shorter boy of warm cocoa. His voice was as smooth and as sweet as honey.

"Uh -- _yes_?" This were the words Jisung's brain had chosen for him to say -- or stutter rather -- and he could feel Changbin's annoyingly amused stare from the distance digging holes into his back.

"You're uhm... you're standing in the way of the basketballs. I need to pick one for my team."

"Oh uh -- yeah! _Yeah_. R-Right." Jisung quickly stepped away, allowing the grey haired male to get what he came for in the first place, and when he'd looked at the corner, he could see Changbin there, laughing his butt off at his painfully _awkward_ social interaction with the relatively new student.

And even with Jisung flipping him the bird in response, the older boy was still bent over guffawing, and it was made worse since the male's laugh reminded Jisung of a dolphin, and dolphins were one of the creepiest species of mammals _ever_.

Over-applied cologne and an ego the size of Zeus permeated the atmosphere that very second, and Jisung found himself leaning back, thoughts of ' _here we go again_ ' and ' _oh boy_ ' floating through his mind.

Someone with pale skin and inky black hair took the only other seat available at Jisung's table, and the blond had to sigh, knowing he couldn't ignore his friend any longer.

"What do you want, Changbin?" Jisung asked. He rolled his eyes when the shorter just scoffed, and folded his arms across his chest.

"Can't I sit with you just because I want to spend time with you?" Changbin's dark eyebrows rose and his expression softened, trying but failing to appear innocent.

"We have each other's phone numbers, and you _hate_ staying in school after all your classes are over. _Spill_."

Changbin dropped the act immediately. "I have a proposition for you."

"What is it?"

"You talk to Minho."

Jisung sat straight. "Uhm, no. That's not happening."

"Then I _dare_ you to talk to him."

"You can't dare me to do something like that."

"I just did."

Jisung exhaled a lengthy sigh, just about done with his friend's antics. "What the hell, Changbin? You saw how our 'conversation' went earlier today. You were eager to laugh and joke about it too."

"That's because it _was_ funny," Changbin chuckled. "I'm very much aware of your lameness as soon as you have to deal with your _precious_ Minho -- "

" _Shut up_ \-- "

"And I want to help you with that. I want you guys to actually be friends."

Jisung refused to break the eye-contact with his raven haired friend. "I know you're doing this because you want something out of it as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Tell me the actual _reason_ you're _suddenly_ so interested in me befriending Minho," Jisung instructed, maintaining the eye contact. If there was one thing he was good at, it was his way of forcing the truth out of people whenever he stared at them long enough. His close friend was _not_ an exception to his ability in any way.

Changbin pursed his lips, his eyebrows conjoined in complete, utter concentration. But soon enough, his shell cracked, and Jisung smiled in victory. " _Fine._ " He leaned into his seat. "If you didn't know, Minho and Felix are apparently friends, and since Minho _knows_ Felix, if _you_ become _his_ friend, you can let _me_ know more about Felix as well."

Jisung blinked. "Why don't you just do it yourself?"

"Have you _seen_ the guy? He even intimidates _me_."

Jisung couldn't argue with that. Felix _was_ intimidating as hell.

"But why are you so interested in Felix even when he scares you?"

"He doesn't _scare_ me." Changbin scoffed. Jisung quipped up an eyebrow at his words, and the shorter's shoulders laxed. "Okay, he _does_ scare me a little. But... I just _like_ him, okay? _Please_ talk to Minho for me. It'll be a win-win situation for you as well, since you're already crushing on the guy."

"I am _not_ ," Jisung denied.

"Whatever." Changbin grabbed his bag and stood up. "Just talk to him for me, okay? I'm sure you won't fuck up like usual."

"Hey!" Jisung exclaimed, earning a warning look from the ancient looking lady that was the school's librarian. "You take that back."

"Whatever." Changbin shoved his arms through the opening of his bag's straps, and gave a distracted wave at his blond friend. "I have to go now. See ya on Monday."

Jisung didn't bother replying, his mind coming up with a million ways on how he could strike up an actual conversation with Minho without making a fool out of himself. He thought so much that he was _sure_ at some point his brain would end up being fried at the endless ways in which this dare could go wrong.

~🍓~

  
**a/n** : thoughts?


	4. 03. bad attempt.

~🍓~

Jisung hated mornings. It was a scientifically and universally proven fact that the unique specimen known as Han Jisung did _not_ thrive _at all_ early in the mornings. _Especially_ not when his alarm suddebly started blaring at the speed of light out of nowhere, spazzing and vibrating as if it'd gotten shocked or something.

And Jisung... he didn't like it _at all_. Not one bit.

  
His tired eyes snapped open, and then he proceeded to wince at the sharp light that invaded his vision at every corner. This was precisely _why_ he never left his curtains opened whenever he was ready to sleep, and he wondered who'd gotten the _bright_ idea to leave them open. It turned out the culprit responsible for shifting them apart to allow the light to filter in was none other than his _amazing_ little sister, Han Areum.

That spawn of Satan.

Jisung placed his palms over his eyes and shifted to the side, trying to bury his head into his pillow so he could catch some additional seconds of sleep. This, however, didn't seem to sit well with his little sister.

"Get up. Mom said so," the short, brown haired girl spoke, folding her arms with a serious expression on her childlike face.

"Go away. Just need a couple more minutes..." Jisung grumbled, his voice dry and croaky from his lack of sleep.

Areum pulled apart the curtains even wider, and the bright light descended upon Jisung's body all at once, making the boy shrivel up like a raisin to try and hide himself from it all. "Stop ignoring me and get up. Last time I checked, you weren't a vampire."

"How do you know for sure, huh?" Jisung murmured. He was clearly out of it because he was clearly joking with his sister, of all people.

"Everyone knows all vampires are hot and you're hideous."

"Ouch," Jisung responded, massaging his forehead with his thumb and index finger because of the headache that had started to form due to his Areum's annoying ass voice. And it didn't help that he literally couldn't _see_ anything properly due how painfully _bright_ his room was.

"Get up, Jisung. We don't have all day," Areum grumbled. "Mom says you're being too late for school and if you continue being late she'll keep forcing me to wake you _uuuppp_."

Jisung gritted his teeth. He really could do without his little sister bugging him for every little thing. He _really_ could.

He sat up and pointed at her. "Shut up. And get out."

She rolled her eyes, showcasing her bratty I'm-much-better-than-you side. "Why?"

"Do you _really_ wanna stay and watch me take off my clothes?" Jisung questioned, before pulling on the hemline of his sleeveless top for emphasis. Almost immediately Areum's eyes blew wide, her face contorted into one that was similar to what babies looked like when they tasted a lemon for the first time.

"Ew, no. _Gross_."

"Then get out of my room."

Areum didn't waste time doing just what he'd commanded. She took less than five seconds to exit his bedroom, leaving nothing but vanilla strawberry scented perfume in her wake. The overly sweet smell made Jisung want to barf his guts out.

He groaned, rubbing his whole face with his hands. He then remembered _why_ he hated mornings so much, as that time of day always left him beyond tired and unable to act like a high-functioning member of society.

His lethargic state of mind only worsened at the fact that all through yesterday -- all through the whole weekend, actually -- he'd spent _hours_ just thinking about how he was going to go about talking to Minho today.

To be honest, most of the time Jisung'd thought about the male's soft grey locks -- and how they would feel if he was given the chance to just run his fingers through them. And then Jisung'd spent a considerable amount of time daydreaming about Minho's smile and how cute he sounded when he laughed. Jisung just couldn't help it. Why was the taller so _captivating_?

His thoughts about the quiet male lingered well into nighttime, and then like the idiotic and overthinking teenager that he was, Jisung stayed up late at night, scribbling down potential conversation starters like a madman on a piece of paper well until after midnight. At that point in time, it was basically pointless for him to fall asleep, so he just took a one hour nap and before he knew it the sun was already rising.

As soon as Jisung got off his bed, he stretched his worn limbs and cracked his knuckles, trying to find the last remaining bits of energy left inside his drained body. He was about 99.68% sure he'd fall asleep in one of his classes later on today, and there was a high chance it would be inside Mr. Shim's Math class.

Oh well.

~🍓~

  
Jisung scarfed down some dry _Fruit Loops_ down his throat, ignoring the looks of contempt Areum threw his way as one thumb swiped over his phone's screen, checking the latest messages Changbin had sent him.

 **emobin** 💣: hope you're planning on talking to lee today

 **emobin** 💣: and if youre thinking of backing out, thats impossible

 **jisugh** : i still couldnt think of anything

 **emobin** 💣: bro are u serious?

 **jisugh** : bin, i trIED

 **jisugh** : but every idea fucking suCKed, ok?

 **jisugh** : i have NO idea how i can talk to minho today

 **jisugh** : i dont wanna embarrass myself

 **emobin** 💣: you have to be kidding me

 **jisugh** : i'm not

 **emobin** 💣: you hAVE to talk to him. every morning he spends a few minutes by his locker looking for some of his books

 **emobin** 💣: this is your chance ji

 **emobin** 💣: and if you're lucky, felix might be there too

 **jisugh** : how is that lucky???

"Jisung, no phones while you're eating," Jisung's mother warned from the loveseat, and Jisung almost choked on a fruit loop in surprise.

He swallowed some of the colourful cereal down and nodded. "Yeah mom. I'm on it."

" _Now_."

Jisung sighed.

 **jisugh** : gotta go.

 **jisugh** : m.e.c

 **emobin** 💣: what

 **jisugh** : mom emergency call

 **emobin** 💣: ...

 **emobin** 💣: what?

 **jisugh** : sIgH

" _Jisung_."

Jisung turned his phone off and placed it flat on the table. He then inhaled the cereal at the speed of a cheetah on crack and with the agility and grace of a drunk caveman.

"Mom!" Areum shrieked, "Jisung deserves to be jailed. He's committing _murder_!"

Jisung stuck out his tongue at her, heading into the kitchen thereafter. Then he was inside his room at record speed, taking his time to pick a decent shirt and pair of jeans so he could look good today. Just the mere possibility of him talking to Minho today made him a _lot_ more conscious of his appearance. He even contemplated wearing a black beanie as well, but he felt like that would be _too_ obvious that he was trying to impress the taller male. So, he decided to skip the beanie altogether.

"Jisung! Your sister's already leaving. Better hurry up so you can catch the bus as well!" His mother called out from downstairs in a sing-song voice, and Jisung hurriedly grabbed his school bag and headed back into the livingroom, excited yet nervous for whatever could end up happening at school later on.

~🍓~

  
"Dude, get your head out of your ass and go talk to Minho for Christ's sake," Changbin begged for the nth time that day after Jisung'd managed to talk himself out of talking to the silver haired male several times that morning.

At the moment they were both seated in the cafeteria, their eyes zoomed in on where Minho sat at the corner with Felix and a handful of other edgy teens with dyed hair and sharp eyeliners. Minho stuck out like a sore thumb amongst them -- like a lovely fairy amidst a gathering of wolves -- yet he still showed no signs of nervousness as he chatted with everyone there like they were all good friends.

Jisung gulped, trying to push aside his brewing jealousy.

"I can't. Not right now. I need to make sure he's alone," Jisung replied, fiddling with a green apple.

"You said the same thing a _gazillion_ times today," Changbin complained, a frustrated pout forming on his lips. "You _always_ keep backing out."

"It's not my fault."

"Uh, _yes it is_."

"You guys are annoying the hell out of me. Please do me a favour and shut the fuck up," a new, _extremely_ tired voice entered the conversation.

"No _you_ shut up, Seungmin. This is a matter of life and death I'm talking about here!" Changbin retorted, and the taller boy just rolled his eyes in disbelief. "And Jisung just _doesn't_ want to cooperate with me."

Jisung glared at his friend. "Why do _I_ have to talk to him in the first place, huh? Why can't _you_ just suck it up and talk to Minho instead?"

Seungmin groaned into his text book, wondering how two people who claimed to be such close friends could bicker _so much_ over every. Little. Thing.

He sighed and slammed the book shut. "Look, the guy you guys are talking about has already stood up. He's gonna go throw his trash away."

"Jisung, this is your chance!" Changbin announced, almost tripping the blond when he suddenly pushed him off his chair. "Go _talk_ to him."

"B-But -- What if the others are watching -- "

"They _aren't_. Just talk to him about anything. Make him recognize you and have _your_ face in _his_ mind," Changbin replied. "Make him _remember_ you."

And just like that, Jisung set off on his mission to talk to Minho that day, _finally_.

He'd been already ridden with anxiety throughout the day, but this situation was just adding more fuel to the fire. The more distance he covered, the more he felt his confidence dimming, leaving a brittle shell of nerves and trembling palms.

Minho was already standing next to one of the garbage bins, his fingers slightly pulling on the deep red beanie on top his head. His tray was emptied as well, and he looked like he was preparing to leave the area when he and Jisung almost collided with each other.

"Oh," Minho's eyes met Jisung's, and the shorter's eyes immediately darted elsewhere. "Sorry." He apologized, his voice soft.

"Nah," Jisung shook his head a little bit too quickly, "It's _fine_. Yeah, it's _definitely_ fine."

Red was also _definitely_ Minho's colour. His beanie matched with his red jacket that snugly fitted his arms and torso, and the shade formed an amazing contrast with his grey hair. God, Minho looked _g_ _orgeous_.

Minho blinked, confusion apparent on his features. "Uhm... Do you -- do you _need_ something?"

Alarm bells went off in Jisung's mind right then, and as a result, he proceeded to act without thinking, because he was an _idiot_.

"I-I don't. I w-was just about to...to throw away this apple!" Jisung exclaimed, lifting the green apple that just so happened to be in his hand. "But it's still new so I guess I'll have to take a bite first, ha-ha."

And then Jisung -- because he was an extreme, colossal and a _gigantic_ idiot -- decided to bite into the apple a bit _too_ forcefully and a bit _too_ quick, and as a result he ended up with a huge chunk of apple in his mouth. He started to choke on it.

Minho quickly responded. "Hey, are you okay?"

Jisung's eyes watered at the sensation of almost choking on a _fruit_ , and when he felt Minho's warm touch encasing his upper arm, he began coughing relentlessly. God, someone kill him now.

Minho'd taken the rest of the apple away, placing a palm on Jisung's back to try and get him to breathe properly again. The blond's skin heated up at his touch. "Do you need the nurse? I -- I could take you to the nurse."

Jisung's cheeks bloomed a hot pink in utter and complete _humiliation_. He almost felt like crying. "Nah. I don't... I don't need a nurse." He fisted his hands at his sides as he took a step back away from Minho, unable to look at the taller to gauge his reaction to his dumb actions. "I'm sorry."

Jisung turned on his heel and marched out of the cafeteria, hoping with all his heart that no one else had witnessed that even though he was sure countless people had.

_Attempt failed._

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	5. 04. viral shot.

~🍓~

  
**emobin** 💣: call me bitch i'm in the middle of a fucking game  
 _seen_

 **emobin** 💣: you're reading my texts

 **emobin** 💣: call me. i cant afford to lose this round >:(

Jisung sighed once he saw Changbin's texts, mostly because he just _knew_ what the older boy was planning on talking to him about. He had a gut feeling the shorter had witnessed the _atrocity_ that was his social skills when he went to talk to Minho in that cafeteria, and by now the whole school must've known, or even heard of it.

After what had taken place, Jisung had planned on spending the entirety of this evening secluded inside his room to hide away from the cruel world, and now Changbin just _had_ to tamper with that plan.

 **emobin** 💣: jisung!

Jisung groaned, the sound stretched out, croaky and scratching against his throat, and he rolled around on his bed for good measure before finally picking up the phone again to dial his friend's number.

As soon as he did so, he mentally patted himself on the back for not placing the phone over his ear, as the sound that left the phone's speakers right then was _everything_ classified as barbaric.

Jisung winced, putting his phone a 'safe' distance away when he heard the frustrated grumbles and artificial gunshots that exploded out of the device.

"The hell do you want?" Jisung interrogated, already fed up with this conversation.

A slew of pressed buttons briefly commenced, then a raged cry, and then --

"Dude, you totally _bombed_ that convo with Minho today."

Jisung licked his dry lips and raked his fingers through his blond hair. "No need to remind me, Changbin. I already know how it went."

"It went _horribly_."

Jisung scrunched his nose when the indiscernible babbles of slaughtered zombies pushed their way through the phone, and then exhaled again.

"I know."

"You _blew_ everything. Well -- except maybe that apple."

Jisung's eyes narrowed. "If you're just gonna insult me, then maybe I should just hang up."

" _No_!"

"Then what do you want?"

"I just -- I hope you're doing okay -- _Goddammit those sneaky fuckers!_ "

"Nah, not really."

More gruesome gunshots, and then silence.

"Did you finally win?" Jisung asked only because he wanted to find a way to distract his friend from the topic at hand.

"I lost. Stupid zombie bashed my head in," Changbin explained, voice tight in anger. Then with a much softer tone he added, "But now I can at least talk to you."

 _This_ was the side of his friend Jisung rarely ever saw, the one where he became oddly _considerate_ and sympathetic for once, and sometimes Jisung didn't mind it all that much, but right now he didn't need any of it. At least, that was what he thought.

"I don't wanna talk about it," was Jisung's hasty response. He _really_ didn't want to talk about it, and he hoped now more than ever that Changbin was able to understand where he was coming from, given with his changed tone of voice.

But alas, it seemed that considerate Changbin had a shorter expiration date than Jisung'd thought.

"You should probably not look up yourself on Insta."

Jisung's heart skipped a beat. "Why?"

"Uhm... I _probably_ shouldn't have said anything..."

" _Changbin_ ," Jisung growled, fisting the material of his pillow in frustration. "You _better_ fucking tell me what's up."

It seemed that considerate Changbin came at the _least_ appropriate times, because right then did Jisung start to hear the noisy sounds of zombies getting punched to their deaths.

"Changbin!"

"Uh sorry, I suddenly don't think I can understand korean any longer." A compilation of gurgled cries ensued.

Jisung, frantic and anxious, then decided to take matters into his own hands. His Instagram account wasn't anything big or serious, just a medium where he posted rare pictures of his face and shared occassional memes with his online gaming friends.

So he was _definitely_ surprised and chilled to the bone when he saw that he'd been tagged in a post as soon as he clicked on the app.

His body growing still from the shock and his fingers becoming clammy, he clicked on the post, and then that shock transformed into embarrassment, and then heated anger.

As he'd expected (and feared), the post was a short grainy clip of him in front of Minho with his back turned to the camera, but anyone who watched this could see the apple he so _gracefully_ bit into.

 **hwangnation** : someone seems to like apples a little bit too much..   
_@hsungle_

"How the fuck does Hwang Hyunjin know my Instagram user?"

"Ah, you found out," came his shorter friend's reply.

"Changbin, this is _serious_." Jisung was honestly fuming, because Hyunjin's post had managed to garner a considerable number of likes and comments, and he knew lots of people would likely be talking about his post at school tomorrow. Knew Minho would've likely _seen_ the post by now.

"The heck am I supposed to know?" Changbin responded. "Look, I _warned_ you not to go on Insta, and now look where that got you."

"This is seriously _not_ the best time to be scolding me right now."

"I'm sorry this happened, okay? I know... I know that this was partly my fault -- "

"This was _all_ your fault."

" _All_ my fault, yada yada." Gunshots bounced off the walls of Jisung's terribly lit bedroom, which made Changbin's apology sound much less sincere. "But like," -- tires squealed over roads -- "How the heck was I _supposed_ to know this would happen? Never knew Hyunjin could _do_ something like this."

"Of course he could. He's a complete _snake_ ," Jisung counter-argued.

"Hey, chill."

"How can I?! The guy's had a thing for getting on my nerves since _forever_. I thought I'd _finally_ be able to escape his pestering this year, but _now_ he had to do _all of this_!" The blond haired student lashed out, unable to mask his vexation concerning what was happening.

"Jisung, I think you should calm down," Changbin advised. "Take a few deep breaths..."

"Why are you not taking me seriously?!"

"I -- I _am_ taking you seriously." More messily pushed controller buttons. "I take you seriously like a _lot_. Yeah..."

"Fucking hell Changbin," Jisung cursed, hating the way his friend prioritized playing video games over listening to his complaint about the one guy that annoyed him since they were kids.

The blond tossed his phone on the bed and flung himself unto it as well, staring at the blank ceiling above. Sooner or later his mother would call him for dinner. He let his eyes close for a couple moments, barely listening to the loud sounds that left his phone (which seemed to get much quieter now that he wasn't fully paying attention to it).

Sooner than he'd expected, Changbin stopped playing his game.

"Jisung?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you angry at me?"

"You're an ass. Of course I'm angry at you."

"I'm sorry."

"And I'm done," Jisung replied.

"...With what?" was Changbin's cautious reply.

"With the dare, _duh_. I'm afraid more shit like this will happen and I'll continue to act like a dumbass in front of Minho. He probably thinks I'm so _weird_ ," Jisung murmured. "Changbin, you were right. He's _really_ out of my league."

Changbin didn't freak out like Jisung had expected him to. And he was glad. "...Do you like the guy or something?"

"What do you mean? I'm not into guys."

"Here we go again."

" _Seriously_ , I'm _not_." Silence.

"Changbin, I -- "

"Jisung, dinner's _ready_!" came Mrs. Han's shrill voice from the livingroom, interrupting whatever he had to say. The blond was glad though, as it proved as an efficient method to get Changbin's mind off the topic at hand.

"Gotta go get dinner," Jisung said.

"But we'll talk later... right?"

"Maybe tomorrow."

"But -- "

Jisung hung up the call and placed his phone on the bed. He then left his room, still feeling bitter with all that happened between him and Minho today.

 _What a lovely Monday_ , he thought, his sarcasm off the charts this evening.

"You look like you've been ran over," Areum chided as soon as everyone took their seat at the dining table. Her chestnut-brown hair had been pulled into a braid, and on her scrunched button nose was a pair of black-rimmed glasses that she'd stared through to give her brother a disapproving glance-over.

"Wow, I certainly appreciated that. _Thanks_ ," Jisung deapanned, before thereafter stabbing his fork into his plate of food. His parents shared looks with each other, but didn't speak up as their son looked like he was in a particularly bad mood.

Once that painfully silent dinner was over, Jisung said his goodnights to everyone before heading back to his room, readying himself for a full night of little to no sleeping _and_ his confusing thoughts about Minho.

Only...that didn't quite happen like he'd anticipated it to.

Not too long ago he'd received a notification from Instagram, notifying him of a new message from an unknown user. Curious, the blond haired male decided to accept their request to chat just for the heck of it, only for his pulse to increase when his eyes fell on the person's profile pic.

It was a selfie of _Minho_. _Smiling_. The picture was angled in a way that not his full face was shown, but it was still enough for Jisung to know _who_ he was now texting.

_Shit shit shit shit._

Jisung's palms suddenly started getting all clammy as soon as he read the messages.

 **leemin25** : hi.

 **leemin25** : jisung, right?

 **hsungle** : uh yeah, its me :)

 **hsungle** : minho?

 **leemin25** : yeah.

 **leemin25** : are you okay?

 **hsungle** : what?

 **leemin25** : the video.

 _Shit x1000_.

Jisung didn't know how to respond.

 **leemin25** : i'm guessing you saw that video too.

 **hsungle** : yeah...

 **leemin25** : that was uncalled for, and i'm apologizing on behalf of hyunjin.

 **hsungle** : its okay. you werent the one who posted the video anyway

 **leemin25** : yeah, but i feel guilty.

 **hsungle** : trust me. you did nothing wrong. i'm just being my awkward embarrassed self

 **leemin25** : i'll do something about it, don't worry.

 **leemin25** : and if people talk tomorrow, just ignore them. i'll handle it for you.

That simple message was enough to get Jisung's heart pumping like wild. He literally couldn't sit still.

 **hsungle** : really?

 **leemin25** : yeah. i'll see you at school tomorrow. :)

 **hsungle** : see you too

Minho didn't reply back, but he didn't _need_ to. His texts gave Jisung enough thought-fuel to last the night, and probably the next night, and then the one after _that_ night.

His phone buzzed. He almost leaped out of his skin.

 **leemin25** : goodnight jisung.

Jisung felt like he couldn't breathe.

 **hsungle** : goodnight minho

~🍓~

**a/n** : sorry for the long delay. thoughts?


	6. 05. find me.

~🍓~

  
Jisung was nervous. He was indisputably, incontrovertibly and inarguably nervous. Simply put, he felt like he was going to shit himself. Not literally, mind you.

He didn't want to go to school today -- not that he actually _liked_ going to school in the first place -- and he'd spent a considerable amount of his time in front of the bathroom mirror after he'd showered, trying to give himself a pep-talk to try and ease away his anxiety.

And was that working?

 _Nope, not in the slightest_.

"Okay, you can do this Jisung," Jisung spoke to the distorted image of himself because of all the steam that had gathered on the mirror's reflective surface. "You can _do this_. Minho..." Images of soft grey hair and gentle smiles suddenly clouded his mind's eye, and Jisung had to shake his head to get rid of those images (no matter how nice they were). "Jisung, _focus_. Minho will be there, and he said he'll deal with Hyunjin for you. You shouldn't be worried. You should just _calm down_. Calm down, Han Jisung..."

The blond inhaled a large breath, and for a few seconds, he was able to attain the tranquility and quietude he so desperately wanted.

Then came a series of intrusive and sharp knocks on the bathroom door, and the moment was immediately shattered.

"Jisung, get out of there! I need to shower as well!" It was Areum, and Jisung instantly rolled his eyes.

"I'm in the _middle_ of doing that!" Jisung replied, unable to keep the annoyance out of his tone.

"You better not be jacking off in there!"

Jisung's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "Why would I even _do_ that in a bathroom for crying out loud!"

"You're not denying anything!"

Already done with his younger sister's attitude in general, Jisung headed to the door and walked out, sticking his middle finger up at her after she frowned at him and told him not to get his ' _cooties_ ' on her.

Fortunately, Jisung was able to keep his nerves in check as he dressed up for school, and he was even able to eat some of the pancakes his mother'd prepared for him and his sister without feeling like throwing it all up. He managed to maintain this composed demeanor well until the school bus arrived near his house.

 _Unfortunately_ , the minute the bus started moving again, he felt as if he was going to _faint_.

Areum, being the _ever so_ loyal sister she was, had abandoned him once they both stepped into the bus, opting to take the seats at the back while Jisung stationed himself at the front. There were still a couple blocks to go before Changbin could enter the bus, and during those unbearable fifteen minutes Jisung had stuck to the sides of the bus, wanting to hide himself as much as possible.

He didn't know why he was being like this. _Yes_ , he knew people were _definitely_ going to talk about that video as soon as he entered his school, but he shouldn't have felt _this_ anxious. Believe it or not, this _wasn't_ the first time he'd done something embarrassing. He was no stranger to stuff like this, so why was he suddenly so squeamish about facing the other students today?

Maybe because this was the first time someone like _Minho_ was involved. Not only that, but the male had been the first to see what he did with that apple.

The blond sighed. How the heck did he always find himself in compromising situations like this?

Changbin couldn't even save him from those belittling thoughts about himself. After all, this was majoritively the guy's fault that Jisung got himself into this incident in the first place.

"Ji, I got your back, okay? _No one_ will mess with you, I can assure that," the older had informed him the second the bus had wheeled to a steady stop in front of their intimidatingly tall high school. "We're best friends, so we _stick_ _together_."

Jisung just shrugged, pushing his bag's straps through his arms. His fingers pierced into the material, shaky and unnecessarily firm, and their grip only increased once he felt a few students' eyes on him.

He was only able to properly breathe once they looked away due to Changbin shooting them a sharp glance in return. At times like these, he was glad to have a close friend like the shorter who could literally _murder_ others with just his stare.

Jisung literally felt like he was stepping into his demise the more steps he took into the school, but by the time he'd entered the school's ever so busy hallways, it was already too late.

Luckily, he didn't see much students looking his way or anything -- maybe because of Changbin's daunting presence behind him that always managed to subdue whoever stared at them into a jittery, uncomfortable mess. And even though Jisung was undoubtedly thankful for his friend's 'protection', that didn't stop him from slightly nudging the shorter's side with his elbow.

"Hey, you should probably dial it down. Your glares are _lethal_ ," Jisung whispered. Yeah, he wanted everyone to stop talking about him because of the video, but that didn't mean he wanted everyone to avoid him like a plague because of his friend's harsh stares.

As soon as he said those words, Changbin's glare was untimely reduced into nothing, and for a second Jisung wondered how his words could've had _that_ much of an effect on Changbin's pysche...only to realize that the shorter wasn't even looking his way at all.

A neurotic expression had promptly shadowed Changbin's features, and his steps suddenly decreased into an awkward stop which resulted in him and a couple other students bumping into each other. The obviously bothered guy ignored them as they muttered out hasty apologies even when he'd been the one at fault in the first place.

Jisung stared at his friend. "What's wrong?"

"Your locker... _shit_."

Bracing himself for the worst, the blond looked in the direction of his locker, only for him to quickly look away once his eyes suddenly met with Minho's. An embarrassed blush caressed his cheeks and burned the tip of his ears.

In all honesty, Jisung would've preferred some sicko spray painting his locker with ' _HAH,_ _LOSER_ ' or something along those lines like he'd seen in those corny American high school movies, instead of _this_. And _mind you_ , it wasn't that Jisung _hated_ that Minho was there. No, he hated that _someone else_ was there as well.

Hell, Jisung would've preferred crossing paths with _Hwang Hyunjin_ for Christ's sake, but definitely not _Lee freaking Felix._

The white haired male stood beside Minho like some kind if guard, his emotionless eyes boredly surveying over the students unlucky enough to be passing through the halls at this exact moment. Jisung shivered.

"Nope. I'm not doing this," Changbin informed, already turning on his heels, but Jisung had fortunately prepared for this.

"Not so fast." With an alarming speed, he grabbed onto the shorter's arm, and before the older could yank it out of his grip, he'd already started marching towards his locker. He was determined _not_ to do this alone.

By this time, Felix had changed his position from leaning over an occupied locker to crossing his arms over his chest, but Jisung _made sure_ he focused his eyes on Minho alone.

Which wasn't _that_ hard to do, in retrospect. The other looked good -- just like he always did -- but today he looked especially stunning in the pale green sweater he wore. And just like always, a beanie was securely placed on his head, grey just like the colour of his hair.

To the detriment of Jisung's oxygen flow and heartbeat, the taller had chosen that time to _smile_ at him, his grin bringing about a certain type of warmth that caught Jisung off-guard. The grey haired boy looked so ethereal, like a bright sunflower growing amidst a gathering of dried weeds, and for a second there Jisung could only stare at his face like a stoned idiot.

"Hi, Jisung," Minho spoke, and Jisung quickly cleared his throat and looked elsewhere. _Bad move_.

His and Felix's eyes met, brown meeting dark, and Jisung _legit_ felt chills run down his spine.

"U-Uh, hi guys," he stuttered, not knowing whether to stare at the Australian's forehead or his septum piercing, before eventually deciding on staring at the immaculately polished floors for the time being.

' _Hah, loser_ ' felt fitting right about now, because he _did_ feel like one.

"Are you okay?" Minho asked, his tone too sweet and honeylike that Jisung felt as if he was going to _melt_ right on the spot.

"Y-Yeah." Jisung cleared his throat once again.

"Is _he_ okay?" The taller then subtly gestured over to Changbin, who'd been standing as still as a rock ever since Jisung started talking to Minho. If this were any other moment, Jisung would have laughed at how his friend outright resembled a freaking _statue_. He didn't even know if the guy was _breathing_ in this state.

Jisung shrugged, choosing that time to nudge his friend out of his hibernation state (if he could even _call_ it that), and luckily, Changbin immediately sprung back to life.

Minho let out a kind chuckle, eyes twinkling with understanding. He probably already knew why they were so nervous.

"Hey Felix, you should probably leave for now. You're scaring them," Minho laughed, to which Felix just looked up and stared at him. " _Dial it down_ , will you?"

Jisung didn't know what the heck was going on, especially with the stares Minho and Felix had just shared, but he had to admit to himself that he kind of, sort of, _maybe_ felt a little bit... _jealous_. Even if he was still a bit confused as to why.

The white haired Australian finally nodded. "Whatever," was his only reply, his deep voice causing unwanted goosebumps to decorate Jisung's arms. The intimidating boy quickly left, taking the icy, tense atmosphere along with him.

"I'll talk to you guys later, okay?" Minho spoke, and when Jisung stared at him he smiled. The younger felt as if his chest was going to explode with confetti just like that one SEVENTEEN music video.

Jisung vigorously nodded before he could stop himself, before attempting to redeem his impulsive actions by flashing the taller male a forced bright smile. "Sure!"

Minho chuckled good-naturedly, and then he was gone.

Jisung smacked Changbin's shoulder and the older yelped.

" _Oww_ , what was that for?!"

"Thanks for the help, dumbass. I really appreciated it."

"Hey, it's _you_ who dragged me towards them in the first place, even when you fully knew _just_ how much Felix's scary yet gorgeous face affects me."

Jisung just sighed and shook his head at his friend. He opened his locker and pulled out his biology textbook. "Whatever."

"Hey, do you have the latest notes for that blood circulation topic Ms. Kim gave us? I think she might hold a pop quiz today being the cruel old lady she is."

 _Shit_. Jisung felt as if today couldn't get any worse.

~🍓~

Spoiler alert: the day didn't get worse. It got _better_ , actually. By the time lunch ensued, so very little people were talking about that embarrassing video, which really was a pleasant surprise. 

It seemed in the little time that Jisung had talked to Minho about the video, everyone had suddenly decided to put it all behind them, their overexcited minds eager to focus on something else of interest.

  
He'd even managed to ace the pop quiz Ms. Kim had ushered out once her class commenced, and although he couldn't say the same for Changbin, he felt _happy_ for once today.

He felt like he could actually _relax_.

But alas, good things didn't last for long especially in Jisung's meagre world. There was always _something_ that'd come along and fuck up everything else and juxtapose his seeemingly endless good luck. And he was right.

He almost nearly _ran_ _for his life_ when Felix suddenly walked up to him by his locker, and ended up slamming the locker shut in shock.

"Relax," the Australian said, "Come with me."

Jisung wished his best friend was with him right now, or maybe even Minho. He didn't trust the white haired student in the slightest.

He shuddered when Felix's _too dark_ eyes met his. "Calm your tits, will ya? Minho had somethin' to do so I had to take this up."

"W-Where are we going?" Jisung couldn't help but ask.

Felix ran his tongue over his lip ring frustratedly, and Jisung felt even _more_ scared. "The basketball court."

By now, Jisung had an inkling as to what Felix was planning. But, he could only hope he was wrong.

The hot sun beat down on the tall athletic jocks casually playing a basketball game, all sweaty and gross with their muscles rippling under their sportswear, but that didn't stop the group of girls over at the bleachers from ogling their bodies with anime love eyes.

The level of testosterone in the air made Jisung want to gag. But before he could _somehow_ convince the white haired male beside him to stop whatever he was planning to do, Felix took a step forward.

"Hey, Hwang! Come over here!"

The court's chatter suddenly died down. Jisung's heart started racing, and not for the reason you'd think. His nervousness immediately spiked as soon as he spotted one of the dark haired guys jogging into their direction, his expression none too happy.

At last, Hwang Hyunjin stood in front of both males, his jaw working as he spared Jisung a brief heated look of contempt. Jisung felt like choking the former to death.

"We don't have all day Hwang," Felix spoke, looking the most bored he'd ever looked in his life. He obviously didn't want to be here, and Jisung could one hundred percent agree with him on that.

Hyunjin bit his lip and made eye contact with Jisung, and he rolled his eyes when the younger just glared harder at him, eventually dropping his gaze. "I... am _sorry_. I'm sorry for...posting that video on Instagram."

Jisung certainly hadn't expected Hwang Hyunjin, of all people, to _apologize_ , but that didn't mean he wasn't loving every single bit of it.

" _And_?" Felix pressed.

"Didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Hyunjin spat, biting his lip even harder that the skin turned white, "It wasn't my intention, so I. Am. Very. Sorry."

Felix rolled his eyes. " _And_?"

Hyunjin uncurled his fists from where they'd been shakingly clenched, and his jaw was firmly set. It was clear he didn't want to say anything else.

"Are we gonna have a _problem_?" Felix questioned, and at this point Jisung wanted nothing more than to turn around and quickly head back to safety. He _didn't_ like how Hyunjin and Felix stared each other down as if they were ready to fight, and he was currently overheating, tired, and not to mention hungry as well.

Felix's icy gaze broke through Hyunjin's hard exterior, shattering it into a million pieces.

" _No_ ," the taller male forced out. He stared at the ground, as if afraid to meet both Felix's and Jisung's stares. "I hope you can accept my apology, Jisung."

Jisung didn't know what to do. The guy who'd despised him as long as he could remember, was now asking for his forgiveness -- _with_ the added help of Lee Felix, but _still_.

Felix fixed him with an expectant gaze, and Jisung snapped out of whatever state he was in.

"Uh, s-sure." The blond male cleared his throat. "You're, uh, forgiven, I guess."

Hyunjin looked up, pink-faced and pissed beyond comprehension, and he didn't waste any time in running back to his lackeys.

Jisung exhaled a deep sigh, suddenly aware he was now able to breathe properly again. " _Fuck_ ," he muttered to himself.

Felix didn't stay to wait for him. He was already gone and out of the court in a flash.

Jisung soon ran out of the court as well, missing the way Hyunjin's eyes lingered on him for a few prolonged seconds before focusing them back on the game at hand.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	7. 06. group mates.

~🍓~

  
"I can't believe this."

Jisung promptly turned around in his seat to face his shorter friend, intending on knowing what he was actually talking about.

"Can't believe what?" He asked, his voice a bit muffled due to the yawn he'd been trying to suppress.

" _Pabo_ ," Changbin lightly flicked Jisung's forehead with his mechanical pencil. "Didn't you hear? Oh wait, let me guess -- you were dozing off again."

Jisung couldn't even deny his friend's accusations. He didn't even _bother_ to, either. The truth of the matter was that Mr. Shim was both a lackluster and an uninteresting teacher, and his voice was monotone and boring enough to make even the greatest insomniac fall asleep.

And that, in general, was considered a good thing, at least in Jisung's book. He hadn't been getting enough rest at night lately (because of a certain _someone_ ), so this was probably the next best thing. It also helped that the man had practically given up on Jisung ever paying ample attention to his lessons a long time ago.

Or so he'd thought.

"Yes, I _was_ ," Jisung concluded. Then he nervously looked around the classroom, a bit freaked out with the way the majority of the students were either closing their books or taking out their calculators. "What the hell is happening?"

"Since you had been enjoying your sleep too much to pay attention, you missed the fact that our _lovely_ teacher over there," Changbin shot a _very_ pointed glare at the middle-aged man, which the man opted to _obvious_ _ly_ ignore, "decided to pair us up to complete a math assignment." An exasperated look fell across the raven haired male's features. " _And who even has_ _partnered math assignments anymore in this day and age_?"

It seemed that most of the class shared in Changbin's whispered opinion, because Mr. Shim decided to speak up at that very moment.

"It seems as if _some_ of you students have been sleeping through a lot of my lessons," the teacher mischievously smiled, "and I just want to see if this... _theory_ is correct."

"Asshole," Changbin muttered underneath his breath, and Jisung wanted to scoff. The blond already kind of knew who the teacher was talking about, but he didn't know why the man was ushering out a dumb group project just to prove a dumb point. Jisung didn't like this at all.

"And to make this even _more_ fair," Mr. Shim continued, pulling out a piece of paper from his folder, "I will be choosing your partners."

Almost immediately a majority of the student congregation protested, but the math teacher wasn't having any of it.

"I aim to create a friendly atmosphere between you all, so I will be pairing you up with people you aren't that familiar with. And if you don't like them, at least it'll make it much faster for you to complete the group project, am I right?" Mr. Shim let out a mirthless chuckle, tightly smiling at the multitude of frowning students. "Life often isn't fair, and it's best you all learn that now. Anyway, the questions will be put on the board. They're simple, _for the most part_ , and you all have to hand it in on or before Friday morning. And don't worry, I won't be grading you _too_ harshly on it." With that his gaze lingered in Jisung's direction for a bit, and the blond felt like rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I'll be calling out the names soon after, so make sure you're paying attention." Yet another glance thrown Jisung's way.

"Why does he keep looking at me? Am I _that_ stupid?" Jisung grumbled, irritated beyond compare. " _Aish_."

"Well, let's just get this over with. Both you and I know he's obviously not pairing us together, and maybe that's a blessing in disguise. You're already terrible at math," Changbin deadpanned.

Jisung glared at him. " _Hey_."

The shorter only shrugged. "What? It's true."

Jisung loudly sighed and turned around, leaning into his seat. He relaxed his shoulders and uncurled his fists, trying to ease the tension off his body. _God_ , he hated Wednesdays. Did he already mention that he absolutely _despised_ Wednesdays?

He then let his eyes drift off into Minho's direction, a bit relieved to see that the older wasn't freaking out like the rest of the class. But that also made him a bit curious, and he wondered if the taller was good in math. It seemed likely, as he already assumed Minho was good in everything else.

"Yo, what if you get paired up with Minho?" Changbin just _had_ to whisper at that very moment, and that was all it took for Jisung to block out whatever Mr. Shim had been spewing prior to now.

Jisung's heart stuttered. Almost as much as he was stuttering right now. "W-What? N-No way."

"Or, what if _I_ was paired with Minho? I think the dude's very smart, and since we aren't doing that dare anymore, I think I'd take a shot at asking him for Felix's phone number," Changbin continued to hypothesize. A huge grin graced his lips. "That _actually_ seems like a good idea."

"No, you're not allowed to _do_ that. Minho's not your 'wingman' in the slightest." Jisung shook his head. "And stop staring at him for Christ's sake. Cut it out."

"Why can't I stare at him? And why can't he be my wingman, _hmm_?"

Jisung felt _this_ close to smacking his best friend, but before he could even attempt that action, his name was suddenly called, admittedly startling him to bits. He was lucky enough not to have fallen off his chair because of this.

"Han Jisung and Lee Minho."

" _Damn it_ ," Changbin muttered a second after. He stared at his wide-eyed friend, before briefly patting his back. "Whatever. Just do me a favour and get me Lee Felix's number."

Jisung just shrugged him off, hurriedly trying to gather his materials together all while being under the unavoidable gaze of a certain grey haired student. At least everyone else was too busy either hating their new group partners or switching seats to pay his struggling self much mind.

By now, Changbin's partner had already been called out, which happened to be some girl with bangs that Jisung couldn't remember the name of, and for once he couldn't feel amused by the way his friend's face contorted into one of sheer horror when the girl flashed him a cheery, sunny smile. He was too occupied with his accelerating heartbeat to do such a thing.

"Jisung," Minho smiled once the shorter boy had taken the empty seat next to him. "Hi."

"U-Uh," Jisung cleared his throat. "H-Hey..."

He _couldn't_ , for the _life_ of him, look Minho in the eye. And no, it wasn't because the older had laser beams for eyes and could actually vapourize him if their gazes just so happened to meet, but it was for a silly reason altogether.

And that was because Minho's presence simply turned him into a pathetic pile of mush that could barely utter coherent sentences and just ended up stuttering half his life span away.

The older male had already opened up his notes, twirling around his blue inked pen in his fingers.

 _Even his hands look nice_ , Jisung thought, no matter how creepy it may have sounded. It was almost unreal how _perfect_ Minho seemed, both in his outward appearance and his extremely charming personality, and that in itself made Jisung all the more afraid of fucking up and embarrassing himself, like what had happened with the apple.

The boy cringed at the memory.

Jisung couldn't help but blink a bit comically when he suddenly saw Minho waving his hand in front of his face, as if trying to gear him back into the present.

"Yeah?" Jisung managed to choke out.

"Are you okay? You zoned out a bit there." Minho's stare was both intense and cautious, full of questions, and Jisung felt like a robot that was minutes away from malfunctioning.

"Uhh -- _Yeah_. Yeah, I am." Jisung accidentally slammed his book on the table, forcefully opening it up. The sound took the grey haired male aback for a bit, and Jisung mentally cursed himself to hell and back. "Uh, sorry. _My bad_."

He nervously chuckled. "So... Shall we get started on the assignment?"

His formal way of speaking only intensified the cringe he felt at that particular second.

 _Jesus, Jisung, what the absolute fuck was that? Might as well call him 'Honey' while you're at it_.

"Yeah, of course." Minho commented. "I've already copied down all the questions from the board, so you don't have to."

"Uh, thanks," Jisung replied. "I hate writing, so."

Minho's eyes were fixated on him again, a shadow of a smile bestowed upon his lips. "I kind of already figured that out."

Jisung's eyebrows rose. "What?"

" _Well..._ " Minho folded his elbows on his side of the table, leaning in until both of their shoulders rubbed against the other, "You aren't particularly the most... _attentive_ in Mr. Shim's classes."

It took longer than it should've for the meaning behind Minho's cryptic words to register his Jisung's haywired brain, but when everything finally clicked, the blond's cheeks were dusted a strawberry pink.

Jisung released an airy laugh. "Uh, yeah, I get bored a lot in Mr. Shim's classes. His lessons _suck_ , no offense," he tried to explain itself. "And I barely enough sleep at night as it is."

"Why don't you get enough sleep, if you don't mind me asking?" Minho questioned. He'd shifted even _closer_ , staring at Jisung's tomato-red face with those warm brown eyes of his.

Jisung's heart felt like a caged bird wanting to escape underneath the older's gentle, yet expectant gaze, and it was at this time he feared he'd do something that he'd dearly regret later on.

"I-I just can't sleep well at night," he forced out. "There's no other reason behind it."

"Well, that's too bad," Minho's brows knitted, forming tiny little divots on his immaculately sculpted forehead. "Sleep is good. No one should miss out on it. Especially you."

" _Especially me_?" Jisung retorted, a little shocked at Minho's words.

"You just seem like one who values sleep a lot. You _do_ sleep a lot in Mr. Shim's classes, so I'm not wrong about that." Minho patted his head with his pen. "At least from what I've seen."

"So you've been watching me," Jisung blurted out before he could stop himself.

Minho shrugged, and Jisung's ears felt like they were about to _melt_ from how red they immediately got when the older male nonchalantly replied with, "Something like that."

Jisung didn't know how to react. He didn't even know how to _breathe_ at this point.

He could only stare as Minho quickly wrote something down on a piece of paper, before sliding it over to him. He felt no better than a prepubescent school kid who'd gotten attention from their longtime crush when his eyes ran over the note's contents.

"Your...number." Jisung was long gone past the ability to form proper sentences at this point.

"Class is gonna end soon for lunch," Minho replied, "and I'd like for us to keep in touch." He paused. "For the math assignment, of course. You won't mind coming to my house tomorrow afternoon to work on it, right? I already have some stuff planned for today."

Jisung dumbly shook his head, fiddling with the note in his hands. He couldn't believe he'd actually gotten Minho's _number_. "U-Uhm, I won't mind."

Minho smiled and chuckled, eyes forming these cute pair of crescents, and the sight was _devastatingly_ cute. Jisung felt as if he was about to get diabetes from the sheer _sweetness_ Minho's smile gave off. He was lightheaded off it all.

The annoying ass bell then chose to blare at that exact moment, and as soon as that happened students were up and about, messily stuffing their books into their bags and marching out the door like a stampede of wild animals.

Luckily, before Jisung could make a fool of himself at the last second, Changbin had already walked up to him, flinging an arm over his shoulder and ruffling his hair like an annoying older brother would.

"'Sup, Minho," he greeted. " _My bro_."

Minho laughed at this, as well as how disgruntled Jisung looked standing next to Changbin. " _Heyyy_ , Changbin. What's up?"

"The sky," was Changbin's answer, and then was when Jisung decided he'd had enough and pushed his friend's arm off of him.

"We should probably get going," Jisung spoke up. "I don't wanna miss lunch."

"Charming lad, isn't he?" Changbin chided at Minho, and Jisung rolled his eyes. He picked up his bag, following the two males out of the emptied classroom in case Changbin decided to say something embarrassing about him on the way.

"Did you guys enjoy your _partnered_ assignment?" Changbin started, putting extra emphasis on the 'partnered' part. "Mine was fucking _horrible_. Jinah was so freaking _happy_ and nice. I wanted to rip my eyes out."

"And apparently there's something wrong with being nice?" Jisung decided to ask.

" _Yes_!" Changbin wasted no time in replying, further pushing the 'dark' and 'badboy' persona everyone thought he seemed to have. "She's all sunshine and rainbows, and it makes me _sick_."

Minho laughed again, and although the sound was heavenly and gorgeous and sweet and everything nice inbetween, Jisung still found his lips pursing into a little pout. It was at this moment he wished he had his best friend's sense of humour, because here Changbin was, making Minho laugh without even trying. And Jisung was often never really funny unless it was to his detriment. E.g. the Apple Incident™.

Speaking of apples, as soon as Changbin'd summed up the courage to ask Minho for his Australian friend's number, Hyunjin and a couple of his friends appeared right around the corner, almost running into the chatting trio.

Changbin and Minho didn't pay much mind to those guys, but Jisung couldn't _not_ pay attention to them. _Especially_ Hwang Hyunjin himself, who'd made it his personal mission to stare the blond haired male down like a predator at its prey right until him and his followers disappeared.

Jisung shivered. Hyunjin made him so uncomfortable.

When he looked up, he realized that Minho was now watching him.

"Are you okay?" Minho asked.

_Nope, not really. Apparently Hwang Hyunjin looks like he wants to murder me, but whatever. I'm okay for now, thanks for asking!_

"Yeah," Jisung simply answered. He cleared his throat, and didn't speak much for the rest of the lunch period.

~🍓~

By the time Jisung got home that afternoon, he was exhausted beyond repair. But still, he forced himself to take a shower and change his clothes despite the endless fatigue that weighed down on his bones. 

As well as the tiredness he felt, he was also a bit irritated, and it irked him how he couldn't even find a logical explanation as to _why_ he felt like he did. All he knew was that he didn't really _fancy_ how _easily_ Changbin cracked jokes around Minho, and how quickly he made the beautiful boy smile.

It made lunch all the more intolerable, even when he _should've_ been glad Minho had chosen to sit with them today. Maybe because he had a slight hunch that it'd been Changbin's jokes which caused him to stay.

_Are you seriously envious of your best friend right now, Han Jisung?_

Jisung sighed in response. He dug a spoon into his rainbow sherbet and shoved a generous amount of it into his mouth, staring hard at the romantic kdrama that played on the tv screen as if it would ease him out of his misery.

And then... he remembered he had Minho's phone number.

Skidding into his bedroom barefeet, tub of rainbow sherbet in hand, he grabbed his phone and saved the older's number in it all in a matter of seconds.

But then he was faced with a difficult question.

Should he text Minho?

Should he _not_ text Minho?

Should he...?

Should he not...?

  
_Fuck it_ , Jisung thought. With trembling thumbs, he texted Minho his first message.

 **jisung** : hi.

Jisung leapt onto his bed, anxiously anticipating Minho's response. He bit so hard on his fingernails they cried out for mercy.

A small _pang_ left Jisung's phone, and the nervous teenaged boy grabbed at the device. His crazed eyes speedily ran over Minho's message.

 **min😇** : uh, who is this?

 **jisung** : uh, i'm jisung :)

 **min😇** : ohh.

 **min😇** : well, hey jisung. how are you? :)

 **jisung** : i'm okay, thanks for asking haha

 **jisung** : how about you?

 **min** 😇: i'm doing alright.

 **min** 😇: but, are you sure you're okay?

 **jisung** : what do you mean?

 **min** 😇: you looked a bit disturbed during lunch today. you didn't talk much either.

 **min** 😇: i was worried.

Jisung's cheeks felt warm even though he was currently inhaling some cold ice cream.

 **jisung** : i'm fine, really

 **min** 😇: are you sure? you know, you can always tell me what's up.

 **min** 😇: i'm extremely good at keeping secrets.

 **jisung** : it's nothing, really. but thanks so much for caring though

 **jisung** : i really really appreciate it

 **min** 😇: i mean, we're kind of friends now. of course i'll care about you. :)

 **min** 😇: hey, what did you save my contact name as?

 **min** 😇: just curious.

Jisung's heartbeat sped up.

 **jisung** : uhh, just minho

 **jisung** : what about you?

 **min** 😇: ah, to be honest, i saved you as 'jisung💜'.

 **min** 😇: i do this thing often with people i talk to on my phone. i save them with different hearts next to their name.

 **jisung** : oh, okay

 **jisung** : the purple heart is nice

 **min** 😇: yeah. purple's my favourite colour.

 **jisung** : really?

 **min** 😇: yeah. i love purple.

 **jisung** : maybe you should dye your hair purple next haha

 **min** 😇: my hair's gonna fall out if i try another colour lmao.

 **min** 😇: and plus, i like grey. don't you like the colour of my hair?

 **jisung** : no, i like your hair. i like it a lot. its nice

 **min** 😇: aw, thank you. 😄

And on it went. Minho was surprisingly very easy to chat with, and the more Jisung talked to him the more he realized just how cheeky and mischievous the older could be at times.

About a million topics and a _lot_ of blushing on Jisung's part later, Minho finally had to go because he had to head somewhere with a family member, which left the blond male alone for that night.

But unlike those other nights, _this_ time Jisung found it incredibly easier to fall asleep, and he knew that this was probably because of Minho.

 _Scratch that_ , Jisung thought with a giggle as he turned over on his bed, smiling at _nothing._

 _This was a hundred percent Minho's doing_.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	8. 07. best fruit.

~🍓~

It was Thursday, approximately 2:45 PM, and you know what? Jisung had a _slight_ feeling that he was gonna like how today was going to end.

To be honest, he didn't have a favourite day, or a favourite month, or even a favourite season. And frankly, before he couldn't care less about _Thursday_. Any other week Thursday would just be another boring day spent at a boring school that vaccumed away all his brain cells and flushed them down the toilet of his soul.

But now.

_Now_ , Thursday was beginning to seem like such a beautiful and _amazing_ day to him, and even though it was a day that happened to have school, he didn't let that fact deter him from smiling ever so often at seemingly nothing.

With a whole day of classes gone by with a handful of shared glances between Jisung and Minho, the blond was already anticipating the visit to the taller's house. 

"Jisung, are we gonna hang out later at my house today or what?" Changbin casually asked Jisung as the two friends tore open some frozen yoghurt they'd bought on the way out from school. "Or do you like, have plans and shit?"

"Did you not like, pay attention to me when I'd been talking about heading to Minho's house _multiple times_ this morning alone?" Jisung replied, side-eyeing his dark haired friend. 

"I _heard_ ," Changbin shoved some yoghurt into his mouth, "but to be honest I thought you'd chicken out of it by the time lunch was done."

"Do you have so little faith in me that you'd think I'd back out of going to Minho's house just because I get nervous around him?" Jisung spoke with an eye-roll, briefly glancing at the pale and cerulean sky. The clouds were so puffy and shapeless that they reminded him of soggy cereal. Yuck.

At his statement, Changbin's dark brown eyes narrowed with a teasing glint in them.

He playfully shoved the younger (a bit too roughly at that) and pushed his bangs to the side solely to make his friend witness his set of dark and wiggling eyebrows. " _Oooh_ , Minho makes you _nervous_."

Jisung rolled his eyes at Changbin's childishness, not willing to waste his breath and try and argue with him once again. The guy already had this deluded idea that he had a fondness for the grey haired male, and Jisung had had enough of trying to disprove that assumption over and over, so he decided to be quiet about it all.

Unfortunately, his cheeks had another agenda. In a few seconds they'd managed to turn this deep cherry shade that Changbin took notice of _instantly_.

"Fuck, you're blushing like crazy," Changbin stated. "Do you have like, a fever or something? Or is that because of Lee Minho."

"Oh fuck off," Jisung elbowed Changbin's side and started stomping his way down the cobbly sidewalk.

Changbin let out his annoying ass dolphin laugh and chased after his red-faced friend. "But you didn't deny anything though."

Jisung threw his empty yoghurt cup in the trash and shoved his hands through his bag's chaotic insides, before pulling out a set of earphones to listen to some music and most importantly block out Changbin's incessant cooing for the rest of the way.

~🍓~

Minho'd texted him earlier that he should arrive at around three forty, but Jisung -- being the overdramatic seventeen-year-old boy he was -- decided to come a couple minutes earlier so he wouldn't seem like a tardy person. And by a few minutes earlier, he meant like a whole twenty minutes.

Luckily, Minho didn't live _too_ far off from where Jisung's home was, and when the blond stood outside the front door with his school bag ready to press on the doorbell, he just couldn't help but admire the area for a little bit.

Honestly, Minho's house wasn't one of those obnoxiously flashy buildings or whatever, but it was pretty neat and chic in its own way. The egg-white walls of the house contrasted majestically with the dark and quality hardwood of the door, and a vibrant display of nice smelling flowers decorated the sidelines of cobblestoned ground. The bushes were carefully trimmed too, beautifying up the whole place.

The cantaloupe orange sky lit up the area, crowning the house in gold. It felt like Jisung was stepping into a whole new dimension entirely.

Before the tanned male could even press on the doorbell, the door clicked open and Jisung was face to face with _Felix_.

Shock pricked his insides, his heart almost sprinting out his chest, while the white haired male looked less than impressed.

The magical aura in the air suddenly disappeared.

"U-Uhm," Jisung's throat dried. He had no idea why he was even _seeing_ Felix's face here, no offense. Last time he'd checked, Minho'd given him this address, so this _should've_ been the right place...right?

"Uh, am I mistaken?" Jisung asked, scratching the back of his neck. He felt hot, _too hot_ , sort of like that uncomfortable feeling you get after a long day spent under the hot sun with slick sweat sticking to your skin. It was a major _ew_ in Jisung's book.

Felix's eyebrows kneaded together, but he knew what Jisung was talking about. "Yeah. This is Minho's house."

Somehow, with his pale grey shirt and his face completely stripped off its usual dark makeup and piercings, Felix looked closer to his age and a lot less intimidating. But yet, he still had a stare of a lion on lookout.

  
"You're here for the group thing, right?" Felix asked the anxious boy, and since Jisung didn't want to look into his eyes he settled his gaze on the other's pink tinted cheeks, spotting a couple of freckles on them.

Man, Jisung knew Changbin was going to _freak_ if he ever saw Felix like this.

"Yeah, I am."

"Come on in, I guess." The Australian still looked guarded as hell even as Jisung cautiously stepped in, looking around the house as if he was searching for something.

Jisung didn't notice anything though, as he was too busy admiring how the house looked from the inside. So _this_ is where Minho lived, huh?

"You should probably stay here and find a couch, or something," Felix was saying a bit distractedly, "I'm gonna go find Minho. _Don't move_."

Jisung nodded, his eyes tracing over the framed painting of subdued art on the walls.

But then, something else caught his eye. Something small and grey that looked like a moving ball of fur.

A light grey cat had emerged out of the hallway, its tiny ears twitching in the slightest bit and its legs stretching as if it was trying to relax its joints. A soft pink paw quickly flicked at its whiskers, completely unaware of Jisung's stare.

But then, its wide copper blue eyes met Jisung's stunned pair, and then it turned around and rushed into another room, disappearing completely.

"Shit," Felix mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Jisung asked, unable to take his eyes off the spot that the cat had previously been in. "Minho has a cat?"

Felix paused, then shrugged. "Something like that." He sighed and faced Jisung, forcing the latter to look at him. "Look, wait here, okay? Minho'll be out soon."

Jisung nodded, and when Felix was gone he started thinking about the cat, wondering if he'd ever see it again. He had to admit the feline was really cute.

"...Jisung?" A familiar voice called out after a couple of minutes, a bit hesitant, and Jisung's head immediately perked.

He stood from the sofa he'd sat on and faced Minho. The latter wore this long-sleeved blue sweater that made the warm brown of his eyes stand out, and when he and Jisung locked gazes his smile grew.

"Uh, hey Minho!" Jisung happily exclaimed. He then pointed at his head. "Woah, you don't have a beanie on this time. Not that I always noticed or anything."

With that, Minho patted his own head and then laughed, raking his fingers through his hair like he was in some professional hair commercial. He actually looked kind of _pleased_ that Jisung had noticed. "Well, yeah! I guess, haha. I don't usually wear them at home."

Minho's smile lit up Jisung's insides like a cloud of smoke, and his crinkled bright eyes made the younger want to slam his head through a glass window. In a good way, of course.

He rubbed his neck. "Uh, we should _probably_ get started on that group assignment thingy. Math can be pretty time-consuming."

"Oh yeah," Jisung clutched his bag, unable to erase his smile. "Of course."

~🍓~

Okay, this _had_ to be the easiest Jisung'd ever get understood math. Just like he'd thought, Minho was an excellent teacher, and with his help they'd quickly managed to finish up Mr. Shim's exercises in the nick of time, which was both exhilerating and anticlimactic at the same time.

  
He didn't want to go home just yet, but he couldn't just tell Minho he wanted to stay in his house for no reason.

He bit his lip as Minho absentmindedly twirled a pen with his fingers, absorbed in his thoughts until he finally looked up.

"My parents are home so I should get us something," Minho started, "hopefully they don't ask any questions about you. Mom can be quite _invested_ in things like these." His eyes lingered on Jisung's face, and he chuckled. "Just stay in my room, okay? It can be a war zone out there with them around."

Jisung chucked out a thumbs up. "Aye aye, captain."

Gosh, his attempt at a joke was really cringey, but hearing Minho laugh was _so_ worth it.

Less than a minute later, Minho returned with a bowl of fruits, and it included an apple.

"So," Minho took the seat next to Jisung and leaned his elbow on the metal table, "I'm not ready to let you go just yet." He chewed on a grape. "Spongebob fan?"

Jisung nodded, still discreetly eyeing the apple off to the side. There were quite a few fruits in that bowl, so Minho couldn't possibly have brought in the apple on purpose, right?

"I love Spongebob." Jisung nodded.

"Favourite character?"

"Um...Sandy."

Minho ate another grape, and he looked kind of smug. "Honestly, I can see why you like her."

Jisung rose his eyebrows, confused. "Why?"

"Well... for one, she freaks out a lot. And she she has a lot of sides to her."

"What do you mean?" Jisung questioned, his heartbeat starting to palpitate.

"She can be cute at times, and other times she can be scary as fuck."

Jisung looked petrified and Minho began laughing.

The older boy softly nudged his shoulder. "I'm just kidding. I mean, you remind me of her, in a way. She's a squirrel, and you kind of look like one as well. It's cute as hell."

Minho's smile at that moment made Jisung want to smash his head through a window. _Again_.

"What's your favourite fruit?" Minho changed the subject.

Jisung stared at the bowl of fruit and chewed on his lip. "Okay -- don't laugh at me, but my favourite fruit is an apple. Well, it _used_ to be."

Minho stared at the apple, looking thoughtful. "Because of what happened?"

"Yeah," Jisung breathed out.

"Well," Minho began, holding the apple, "you shouldn't let unfortunate moments get in the way of your preference. But, in my opinion, apples are sour and aren't really my taste. But I'm not judging you by the way," he added, "Just stating my thoughts."

Jisung laughed a little at his words.

"But, since you probably won't ever look at apples the same way again," He shifted closer and brought out a new fruit, a delighted expression taking over his features, "Let me introduce you to a new fruit. One I like to call, the 'Strawberry'."

"You like strawberries?" Jisung questioned, momentarily forgetting about his nervousness at the new information.

"I _love_ strawberries," Minho corrected. "And I'd like it if you love them too. You should _totally_ try some."

"Sure, I guess," Jisung shrugged, ready to pick one for himself. But it seemed Minho had other plans because he'd chosen right then to lean in and place the strawberry just a few centimeters away from Jisung's lips.

His cheeks flamed as he realized what Minho hinted, and when he slowly bit into the fruit, Minho looked satisfied. His breathing fanned Jisung's skin and his brown eyes lit up, twinkling with those tiny little golden flecks in them. He was so _close_.

But then he put some distance between him and Jisung after the latter ate the fruit. "Sweet, right?"

The winged insects in Jisung's stomach made their way to his chest and wouldn't let him breathe properly.

"Yup," he choked out, " _super sweet_."

"You can take more if you want," Minho suggested, staring at Jisung as if he was witnessing something groundbreaking.

"Of course." Jisung took more strawberries -- a _lot_ more strawberries for that matter -- because now he suddenly thought the fruit was the best thing he'd ever tasted in his life.

~🍓~

"Fucking hell I wanna _die_ ," Jisung proclaimed when he dialed his friend's number later that night.

"Was your date with Minho _that_ bad?" Changbin asked, before pointedly clearing this throat.

"Fuck off. Felix was at Minho's house and they're totally dating."

Jisung swore he could _literally_ hear Changbin's heart break over the phone.

"I -- _Are you for real_?"

"That's what you get for being so annoying, sucker."

"Jisung, I will kill you," Changbin threatened. "But seriously," he added with a bit of hesitance, "what was Felix doing at Minho's house?"

"Probably hanging out or whatever. They're _friends_ , you know?" Jisung reasoned, kicking off his slippers and planting his face on the pillow. "But man... today was something else."

"What happened?"

"I think I'm too overwhelmed right now to even _talk_ about it."

"Did you and Minho kiss or something?"

Jisung frowned. "Changbin, shut the hell up."

"Okay okay. But seriously Ji, what happened. Be honest."

"Minho fed me a strawberry," Jisung replied, his words slurred because he spoke them too fast. But fortunately (or unfortunately), Changbin managed to hear him.

  
"Oh my gosh. That's so gay."

"You are literally not helping right now."

"Minho fed you a fucking _strawberry_. Gayest act out there," Changbin argued back. "All we need is to sprinkle some fucking rainbow glitter and shit to top it all off."

"I'm gonna hang up."

"I think he's gay."

"Everyone's gay in your book."

"Including you."

Jisung loudly sighed. "Goodnight, Changbin."

The older paused, and then he uttered a goodnight as well. "I'll see you tomorrow. I'll remember to bring some rainbow glitter as well."

"I regret telling you about this."

Changbin just laughed and hung up right after.

Jisung exhaled and shut his eyes, thinking all about what took place today, especially at Minho's house. He remembered all the questions the taller asked him about himself and about what he liked, and he genuinely seemed interested in what Jisung had to say.

Jisung barely got to question him though, and that could explain how he'd forgotten to ask Minho one question that'd been bugging him ever since they started working on that math assignment.

He forgot to ask Minho about that adorable cat.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	9. 08. secret letter.

~🍓~

  
"It's that time of the year again," Changbin murmured, the bored lilt of his voice forcing its way into Jisung's ears as both boys headed into the school's gates early that Monday morning. "The weather's too fucking cold, the air's too fucking breezy, and now everyone in school's acting too fucking crazy. I can already detect it; the _stench_ , the putrid odours, the _raging hormones_ \-- "

Jisung loudly sighed, making a zipping motion with his fingers. He already knew what Changbin was talking about -- and he could see it as well, especially with the languid and cheap red and white decorations piling up at the corners of the already comically lengthy hallway -- and he just wanted nothing more at that moment than for his friend to kindly _shut up_.

"Shh," the blond male rolled his eyes, muttering choruses of ''excuse me's' as he attempted to dodge the slow-moving congregation of high school students in the hall, all while attempting to do so in a polite and calm manner. Never mind the fact that he was currently burning up on the insides at how _slow_ everything and everyone was. At this point, there was nothing that would cheer him up and distract him from the utter _eyesore_ that the school's lazy decorations managed to showcase, except for maybe a certain grey haired guy that just so happened to attend the same math class as him.

As thoughts about Lee Minho filled every crevice of Jisung's mind, Changbin's voice -- once again -- snapped him out of it in due time.

"February's just started and they're already putting out the Valentine's Day decorations?" Changbin scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Pfft. That's gross."

"You're just salty 'cause you're hopelessly single," Jisung stated, shifting through his school bag for the books he'd end up condemning into the dungeon of his locker. "Big whoop."

Changbin glared at him through his bold eye makeup and inky black bangs, attempting to defend himself from his friend's accusations. "Hey! That's not true. I've dated a few people before... In the past."

"What? Is it about that girl that you broke up and fought with in kindergarten because she bit your lollipop? Or maybe it's about that other girl that you dated for one day before breaking up with her because she treasured her crayola markers more than you?" Jisung questioned, rubbing his chin in a mock-philosophical manner. "Or maybe it's that one girl that -- "

"Okay okay!" Changbin interrupted, aiming deadly daggers straight at the taller with his stare alone. "I've got a bad rep with girls -- _sue me_. But it doesn't matter now since I'm not even straight."

"Yeah. Whatever." Jisung put in the passcode of his locker, blankly staring ahead as the old, rusty thing creaked open. Crushed papers and half-empty inked pens greeted his vision, and he was about to start the tedious and _extremely_ underwhelming process of making some more space to shove in his new set of books when his eyes landed on something... _odd_.

Unfortunately for him, Changbin's sharp gaze had caught sight of the bright pink paper before he did, and his sticky fingers were even faster in grabbing the paper from Jisung's grip as his hungry eyes ran over its contents.

"Hey," Jisung let out, "give it to me."

"This is a love letter, I think," Changbin stated instead, a brief chuckle later escaping his lips. "What kind of kdrama high school type cliché is this?"

"Changbin, pass it up," Jisung replied, admittedly curious about whatever that letter was about. "I wanna see what's inside."

"I don't think you'd wanna, though. This is so fucking cringey. There's literal hearts _everywhere_."

"Come on," Jisung pulled the letter from Changbin's hands and stared at it, "it can't be _that_ bad -- "

_To: Dearest Han Jisung♡☆♡☆_

_you're very very cute and you're soooo handsome!! everytime i see you my heart bursts into these tiny little sparks of electricity, i feel like i'm gonna die from it!!_

_you're too cute, and i love love love love your smile. you're so nice and funny as well, and whenever i see your cute face i just wanna squish your cheeks!!!_

_i want to tell you how much i like you, but i'm afraid i can't, because if you see me you'll laugh at me for sure! you're literally too perfect!!!!_

_i've liked you ever since i saw you jisungie. i wanna date you soo bad, but i'm afraid because you don't seem to like older girls. :((((_

_but still, i still have hope hehehehe_

_i still like you a lot!!_

_love, (ur) noona girl♡♡♡_

"What the..." Jisung muttered, his cheeks turning a bright red shade because of the second-hand embarrassment he was currently feeling. He bit his lip, not knowing exactly _how_ he should feel, and exactly _what_ he should do next, while Changbin was obviously having the time of his _life_ reading over the ridiculous 'love letter'.

"Fuck, you've got a noona thirsting after you now," Changbin spoke, "How does it feel, man?"

"Literally _shut up,_ " Jisung narrowed his eyebrows, but he already knew Changbin wouldn't take him seriously anyway.

"Aren't you happy you finally got a confession letter for once?"

Jisung just glared at his friend in response, nudging the shorter's stripped turtle neck to get him to stop talking.

It was weird. _This_ whole thing was weird. Of course, Jisung _should've_ been at least a _bit_ flattered that some girl had taken some time out of her day to write him this (albeit cringey) love letter, but all he felt at that moment was a weird murky feeling inside his gut. He somehow felt a bit uncomfortable with the fact that some unknown person had been admiring him all this time from afar, staring at his every move...

He shuddered, and folded the note.

"So, wait, aren't you gonna thank her or something?" Changbin started. He grabbed a candy bar from Jisung's locker that the blond hadn't even noticed was there at first. "She even got you this candy bar. It's your favourite brand as well." He patted Jisung's shoulder. "Can I have it?"

Jisung scowled in response and grabbed the candy bar. "No, you can't. And for the record, I don't even _know_ this girl, so I can't accept her candy bar gift or whatever."

"That's like, _so mean_."

"I can't eat this not knowing who she is."

"Noona will be _very very_ sad," Changbin fake-sniffed. "At least give the bar to me, and I'll make sure I'll take _very_ good care of it."

"Nope." Jisung placed the pink, glittery letter and candy bar back into his locker and shut it. He casted a wry smile Changbin's way, while the latter looked sullen. "The bell's gonna ring soon. We better be early to our first class."

"Whatever," the dark haired male huffed, grumbling as Jisung ushered them away from his locker.

~🍓~

Concentrating in most of his classes proved to be a pointless feat, because Jisung wasn't even listening. He _couldn't_ even listen, his mind plagued with the event that had happened earlier this morning. Apparently, he had a secret admirer now, some girl that called herself his 'noona'.

He just couldn't stop thinking about it, and that wasn't even because he'd never received a letter like this in a long time, but it was because of how _sudden_ everything was. It was even worse now that he had _no idea_ who the girl could be, and the fact that she'd chosen to put that letter in his locker when Valentine's Day was gradually approaching made him all the more distracted.

  
This distracted feeling only worsened as the day progressed, and whenever Jisung got distracted, he got antsy, and whenever he got antsy, he got stressed. And he was _pretty_ sure everyone seated at his lunch table could discern his expression by now, but maybe they were just too nice to say anything.

Jisung dug a fork into his small serving of the cafeteria's mac and cheese when he felt Minho's eyes on him. And that was when tiny nervous beads of sweat started dotting his temples, because when would his body ever _not_ act all weird whenever Minho was around?

"You good?" The older boy asked, shooting a small smile Jisung's way.

Jisung frowned, his ears mirroring a stop sign once he spotted Changbin from across the table intentionally eating his mac and cheese with suggestive eyes.

Jisung slightly pushed his tray away. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Ji got a love letter from some girl who called herself his ' _noona_ ' earlier today. It was _so_ cringey," Changbin blurted, and Seungmin looked up from his tray of food.

Jisung kicked the shorter's shin. " _Changbin_!"

Minho's brows rose, looking sort of _amused_ by the whole situation. He laughed. "Really?"

Jisung became even more embarrassed.

"Wait. You actually got a _letter_ ," Seungmin clarified. "Who even _does_ that anymore?"

"Apparently this girl does. Whoever _she_ is," Changbin stated, while Jisung just rolled his eyes.

Minho chuckled, his eyes getting all _sparkly_ as they always did even he was entertained by something, and the sight absolutely wrecked Jisung. Talking about that unknown girl sucked out every last bit of Jisung's appetite, but seeing Minho like _this_ compensated for it all.

"Do you guys have any idea who the girl could be?" Minho asked next, and Jisung just shrugged, wanting the conversation to be done and over with already.

"I'm betting on that lunch lady over there," Changbin teased, discreetly jutting his thumb at one of the stern-faced women in charge of feeding the hoard of hungry teenagers. "She like, always gives Jisung an extra brownie whenever it's Brownie Thursday."

Jisung kicked Changbin's leg, tightly smiling when his friend winced. " _Shut up_."

"Want some strawberries?" Minho questioned, managing to divert Jisung's attention off the dark haired boy almost immediately.

Fortunately, those strawberries were _super_ good. _Unfortuntately_ , Changbin's smug smile became one even _he_ couldn't wipe off.

_Fuck, where was Felix when he needed him?_

It was then Jisung realized the Australian'd chosen to skip school today, of all days.

He groaned. This was going to be a _long_ day.

~🍓~

It seemed 'Noona' girl had a persistent streak, because the next day she was back again with full force.

  
Today she'd graced Jisung with a teddy plushie that had a laced heart and a permanent smile, a couple of sweets, and yet another letter of her cringey and overly heart-felt words.

 _jisungie_ , the letter read towards the end, _please accept my gifts~~!! your noona :' >_

Jisung ended up giving those sweets to Changbin, but he decided to leave the teddy bear in his locker out of guilt, causing his shorter friend to call him a ' _typical tsundere kdrama badboi_ ', or whatever. Jisung just felt weird having to accept all these gifts when he had no idea what the girl even _looked_ like, and no idea why she was even spending money on him in the first place.

Changbin (and Minho, to Jisung's horror), just found the whole thing amusing, even when Jisung didn't feel that way about it in the slightest.

He just wanted it to stop.

Third day, another letter and another gift.

This time Felix and Minho were around, and the white haired Australian released a bemused chuckle at the letter's contents, while Minho just laughed again.

"Okay, no, wait -- " Changbin began at one point during his and Jisung's phone conversation that evening, "What if the girl's actually someone you _know_?"

"But I don't _know_ that many girls," Jisung admitted, staring out his window. The moon took up a significant part of the indigo sky, its reflected light casting shadows over the houses below. "The only girl I really know is Areum. And she's my _sister_."

"Then maybe she's playing a prank on you."

"Dude, that's just _gross_. And plus, that'll just make me seem like a loser."

"But aren't you already a loser?"

Jisung rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna hang up."

"Wait! I have a theory."

"What is it?"

"What if Minho's the one sending you all those letters?"

The moon glimmered, seeming to pulse with new life, and Jisung's eyes widened at his friend's statement.

"No -- no! Just, _no_ ," Jisung answered. "No fucking way."

"I feel like Minho could do that."

The thought of Minho being that cringey girl lit Jisung's face in flames and made his heartbeat skyrocket, no matter how _crazy_ the whole idea sounded. But then with that bright feeling came a certain dullness that weighed in on his chest, because if what Changbin said turned out to be true, then Minho could've just been making fun of him _all this time_.

The thought made Jisung feel a bit sick.

"Changbin, it's not him," Jisung shook his head. "For all I know the 'Noona' could be you."

"No offense, but I'd rather eat a decayed leaf than write that kind of letter for you," Changbin corrected. "And besides, I like Felix."

Jisung swallowed the lump that'd formed in his throat after imagining the possibility of Minho being the one who wrote those letters. "Yeah. Okay. How's... how's it going with him anyway? Got his number or anything?"

His attempt at changing the subject went unnoticed by Changbin, who willingly grabbed the bait at the mention of his beloved crush.

"Nah, not really." He cleared his throat. "Minho told me Felix doesn't give his number out just like that. I have to actually _do_ something to get it."

" _Hah_ ," Jisung dryly remarked. "Good luck with that."

"Thanks. I'll need it."

"Look," Jisung bit his lip, "I need to go now. I feel sleepy."

" _Sleepy_?" His friend repeated as if he'd just heard a strange word. "Since when do you _sleep_?"

"Since _now_. Goodbye Changbin," Jisung replied, before turning off his phone and collapsing over his bed. He blinked at the ceiling, replaying his and Changbin's conversation about the secret letter fiasco over and over in his head.

 _Why'd you have to bring Minho into this, Changbin?_ Jisung thought, before switching on his phone and flicking through his contacts. He paused, his thumb unable to press over Minho's contact name no matter how hard he tried.

He let out a frustrated sigh, about to turn his phone off and call it a night, when his phone suddenly vibrated with a text.

 **min** 😇: sung, are you up rn?

 _Sung_? Jisung's pulse quickened.

 **jisung** : hey :)

 **jisung** : yeah, i'm up

 **min** 😇: okie.

 **min** 😇: this question might seem weird, but i promise it's for a good purpose.

 **jisung** : ok, what's the question?

 **min** 😇: what's your favourite time of day? morning, afternoon or night?

At that moment, Changbin's voice ricocheted throughout the walls of Jisung's mind like an echo, and dread filled his chest like a well.

_What if Minho's the one sending you all those letters?_

_No_ , Jisung thought.

 **jisung** : uhh, i like the night a lot.

 **jisung** : why are you asking? haha

 **min** 😇: just something random i wanted to know.

 **mn** 😇: so, you're probably a night owl, huh?

 **jisung** : kind of

 **jisung** : it's already hard for me to go to sleep, so it kind of makes sense

 **min** 😇: well, that's too bad.

All of a sudden, the Minho's contact flashed on top Jisung's phone screen, letting the blond haired male know that he was now _calling_ him.

The call took Jisung by surprise -- judging by how much he jolted -- but then in a few seconds he successfully accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Uh...Jisung?" Minho asked. Over the phone, his voice became much more smooth _and_ a little bit deeper, like he was afraid of getting _too_ much in the way of whatever Jisung could be doing.

"Hi, Minho," Jisung breathed out, fiddling anxiously with his thin shirt. He _swore_ he could see the older's smile at that second.

"To be honest, I have no idea why I decided to call you tonight, since I could've just texted you this, _but_ ," Minho inhaled a breath, and then chuckled, "You should totally go to sleep right now. Sleep's important."

"Yeah, I should." Jisung nodded. "But it's difficult."

"Then how can I make it less difficult?"

Jisung's face burned. "Uhm... I don't really know..."

"Well," Minho paused, "I could read you a story. I have an app for that. It's majorly for fanfiction, but whatever."

Jisung burst into a fit of laughter. " _Fanfiction_?"

"Yeah. It's _kinda_ embarrassing, but I read them sometimes," Minho replied, chuckling as well. "Anyway, there's a book in my iPad's library that I can read to you so you can fall asleep."

Jisung was _speechless_ , for lack of a better word. He really didn't know what to say, and didn't even know _why_ the grey haired male was doing this for him, but he was extremely thankful nonetheless.

  
He slowly nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Minho."

"You're welcome, Han Jisung."

Jisung had to admit that hearing his full name hit different this time around, especially when someone like _Minho_ said it. He liked the way everything rolled off the older's tongue.

Minho's voice was soothing and pleasant, and despite the predictable story he read Jisung found himself loving every single paragraph. He just really _liked_ hearing the older's voice, and soon enough, it brought him to sleep.

 **min** 😇: i'm glad you're asleep now.

 **min** 😇: and your little snores are very cute. :)

~🍓~

**a/n** : worst chapter yet i'm so sorry. i hate this so much but i guess i deserve it for writing this chapter when i wasn't feeling all too great lmao

anyway, thoughts about this?


	10. 09. 11:11

~🍓~

Today was Thursday, and Jisung would've felt _extremely_ relieved that the anticipated weekend was approaching yet again if not for the fact that his 'secret noona' had not ceased in sending him all those confession letters and gifts. And to him, that was a little bit _too_ much, and although he felt _kind of_ flattered that someone cared about him this much, he really didn't want this to continue. He felt like he didn't deserve it, and all the attention made him feel uneasy as hell.

  
So, Jisung decided to do something about it.

Once he stepped out of his first class of the day, he headed straight for his locker, muttering something along the lines of ' _I'll catch you later_ ' to Changbin, who in turn just shrugged and went off to his next class. Despite his nonchalant attitude though, Jisung still had a hunch that his ever-so-curious friend would be asking him about what he was about to do later when they were alone.

The blond teen felt like he was being scrutinized in the worst way possible -- like he was being studied underneath a large as fuck microscope even though there were currently a few students in the hall during this time of day.

 _Fuck_ , his mind whispered like it was muttering out a conspiracy, _what if one of those people is the actual 'secret noona'?_

Cold chills ran along Jisung's spine, and, feeling very much like he was in a set of a not-so amusing horror film, he pulled out a piece of paper from his folder and took out a blue inked pen, determined to write out his message in the quickest way possible.

He only had like, five minutes before the bell for the next class would sound off, so he had to hurry and set his plan into action.

As he scribbled out his message for the girl who _supposedly_ had the 'hots for him', he briefly remembered her latest note where she'd _so obviously_ asked if he was attending that Valentine's Day date thing that was set to take place next week Saturday as well, and shuddered yet again.

Of course Jisung wasn't going. He had no interest in those events, and hated school dances with a passion ever since middle school. So there was absolutely _no way_ he'd go to a dance centered specifically around 'love' and all those other gross emotions, especially not when he could've spent that Saturday eating as much junk food as he could with Changbin at the latter's house instead.

 _Who are you?_ His letter asked. _I want to know who you are._

As the bell for the next class vibrated through the hall's corridors, Jisung's mind went back to the possibility of the girl being... _Minho_ , but he shrugged that thought off. The whole idea sounded as crazy as it felt, and Changbin was known for his weirdass ideas all the time. And also, _why_ would Minho actually want to pose as some cringey noona when he could just be upfront about telling Jisung how he --

 _Nope!_ The seventeen-year-old's ears turned redder than a ripe cherry, and he almost dropped his letter once (more specifically, _countless times_ ) trying to shove it back into his locker before finally succeeding. To outside eyes, he probably looked like he was on something bad due to his high-strung behaviour, but for once he couldn't care less. He just wanted to find a way to calm his loud-as-hell heartbeat and get to his next class on time before Changbin could interrogate him again.

~🍓~

Friday came along, and apart from the early morning announcements about the upcoming dance from Bang Chan and Kim Woojin, the two senior rivals who hated each other's guts and held the title of _School President_ and _Vice School President_ respectively, there was _nothing_.

In fact, today, his locker was empty of any pink letters or sweet gifts. Jisung suddenly felt like he'd done something wrong to anger the unknown girl.

"Looks like she's gotten tired of you." As always, Changbin decided to joke about the matter. "Maybe she finally saw your face for real this time."

"Shut the fuck up," Jisung replied, already done with his friend's shit, and mostly because the unmistakable feeling of guilt had flooded his whole system. But, he'd just wanted to know who she was. There was nothing wrong with that, _right_? Or at least he'd thought there wasn't.

But _apparently_ he'd now pissed off some girl. What a great start to the day.

His guilty conscience plagued him throughout his morning classes, and the feeling was only made worse because Minho'd chosen _that_ day specifically to miss school, and since he'd known the guy Minho'd _never_ once missed a day of school, so Jisung felt pretty strange.

Despite Felix nonchalantly informing both him and Changbin during the brief time he'd spent at their table lunch period that Minho'd skipped school that day because he wasn't feeling _too_ well, the strangeness in the air only seemed to amplify.

What made things even more baffling was the fact that Changbin chose to bail out on heading home with Jisung that afternoon, and not for the reason the younger'd expected.

"You remember when I told you about me wanting to get Felix's number?" Changbin started whilst placing some of his books into his locker.

"...Yeah? What about it?"

"Well, yesterday I learnt Felix attends some poety club thingy every Friday, and guess what? I decided to join. And my first day at the club starts in approximately... ten minutes," Changbin shut his locker and cracked his knuckles, rolling his shoulders as if to get some tension off of them. "Time to bring out my _inner Shakespeare_."

  
Although Jisung felt a bit discouraged that he was going home today without Changbin by his side, he was at least a little impressed that the guy'd finally mustered up the courage to go after his crush for once.

He chuckled. "Well, good luck with that, man."

"Thanks, Ji. Hopefully I get to impress the shit out of Felix."

"D'you like, know anything about poetry?" Jisung questioned.

" _Not at all_ ," Changbin deadpanned. "But there's no way I'm gonna let him know that."

Jisung laughed, but nodded. "Okay, then."

"I'll call you tonight. Let you know how the club thing went with Felix."

"Sure," Jisung replied, and when Changbin decided to turn the other way down the hall, he walked home, his thoughts jumbled up yet again.

But the most prevalent thought was _clearly_ about Minho, as well as worry about what'd happened to him.

~🍓~

Although this wasn't Jisung's first time texting Minho, he still chickened out on messaging the goodlooking guy multiple times because he feared he'd be _disturbing him_ or _wasting his time_. Which was dumb, but Jisung was known for blowing things _way_ out of proportion. 

He'd even contemplated showing up at the older's house just to know how he was doing, but he'd _obviously_ backed out of that as well.

God, he was a mess. Which wasn't something new, but still.

The glowing sun became swallowed up by the horizon just as 5 PM rolled around, and that was when Jisung decided that _fuck it_ , he was gonna text Minho and _nothing_ would stop him this time.

**jisung** : hey minho!

**jisung** : how are you doing? i didn't see you at school today, so i hope everything's okay :)

_Ew, no smiley_ , Jisung cringed, backspacing on the smiley face and instead deciding to add a strawberry emoji, but because.

After he'd sent the message, he waited. And waited.

And waited.

But Minho never responded. He hadn't read his messages either, and with every minute that passed Jisung self-esteem grew more and more deflated.

_Maybe I should just delete the text_ _s_ , Jisung thought, but ultimately decided against it. He'd feel even more like a massive loser if he took back those two messages, so he left them the way they were even though the mere sight of time sank his confidence levels lower than the Mariana Trench.

  
Six pm arrived, but still no reply. And then Jisung ate dinner, and his texts were still not replied to.

This weird feeling that had latched onto his chest and was currently drowning his insides was one that Jisung didn't like in the slightest bit, but there was no way that he could get rid of it. In layman terms: he felt like his heart was being eaten alive and then stomped on, and to be honest that kind of hurt.

But you know what? It's cool. Minho must've been busy right now. Or maybe he was even asleep, recovering. Minho didn't have to check his phone _all the time_ , and Jisung could just contact him tomorrow or something.

But despite all these excuses the teen was making up for Minho, the feeling that tugged on Jisung's heart never lessened. It just got worse as time progressed, and even Changbin's call couldn't snuff it out.

By the time he was 'supposed' to go to sleep, Jisung lay on his bed, slumped with an intense pout on his face.

Once again he'd prepared himself for another night of restless sleep, but then his phone's screen brightened, forming a small halo of light around Jisung's startled face.

His heart sank, and then soared when ' _min😇_ ' appeared on his phone's screen, and then he started _freaking out_ because Minho was calling him.

His palms suddenly became clammy as heck as he grabbed onto the electronic device, almost dropping it one too many times in his haste to answer the call.

 _Jisung, calm down_ , he told himself, inhaling a deep breath in the process. _Don't say anything stupid_.

"...Hi, Minho..." Jisung greeted, hating the way his voice noticeably faltered and cracked towards the end, and he internally facepalmed.

"Jisung," Minho's voice held guilt. "I'm really sorry for not answering your texts earlier. I'd been caught up with something... But I decided to make it up to you by calling you! So I hope that's okay..."

Relief flooded Jisung's system at the fact that Minho hadn't been _purposefully_ ignoring him, and his ears felt all warm. For once he didn't mind the feeling.

"Nah," Jisung shook his head. "It's okay, Minho. I mean, everyone's busy from time to time, so it's all good. I wasn't like, anxious over it or anything."

 _Jisung, stop talking_.

Minho laughed, and the warmth in Jisung's ears spread to his neck. "Mhm. Okay."

_Shit. Why did Minho totally sound like he didn't believe him one bit?_

Jisung pulled the collar of his grey tshirt, trying to cool himself down. "...Yeah."

"Listen, Sung." At the slip of the nickname Jisung's stomach did a little doggy flip. "I -- This is weird, but... d'you wanna come to my house tonight? I mean, would you mind?"

Jisung would be lying if he said he'd expected Minho to ask him something along those lines, and by the way he'd momentarily gotten a little sidetracked, that wasn't far off from the truth.

"Uhm," he blinked. "What?"

When Minho didn't reply right away, Jisung became scared he'd offended the guy or something, but then Minho cleared his throat.

"Just -- Forget about it," he said with an unsure chuckle. "Uhm... I'm just a little tired, is all."

But Jisung just couldn't ' _forget about it_ ', like Minho'd told him to. Of course he couldn't, not when the older had asked him to head over to his house when it was almost freaking _eleven o'clock_ in the night.

Jisung also should've probably followed up Minho's statement with something along the lines of getting some sleep, as that was the most logical thing to do, but then again, when did Jisung ever listen to his rational side?

"I can come over."

For a second there, Minho was speechless over the line. "Wait -- For real?"

Jisung quickly nodded. "Sure! I mean -- yeah, I guess. I've got a bike, and I'm pretty confident I can swing by your house since you don't live too far away from me."

"Aren't your parents going to like, freak out?" Minho sounded even more surprised than Jisung felt, but there was an unmistakable brightness to his tone that the younger picked up on. He sounded excited.

"Nah," Jisung shrugged, trying to play it cool even though his heart was racing a mile a minute and he didn't like leaving the house late at night. "They're chill. Don't worry."

"Well, that's... pretty great actually." Minho laughed, and a goofy grin spread across Jisung's features.

"Yeah. Super great." Jisung bit his lip. "I'll see you in five minutes."

~🍓~

  
Teenagers did stupid, dumb shit all the time, even though it'd cost them something valuable, just like how Jisung riding his bike out of the house this late was costing him his health as he was probably going to get sick later on from the cold.

But, it was kind of _worth it_ , especially since he'd get to see Minho today.

 _I wonder if his parents are home_ , Jisung thought as the bicycle's wheels rolled down the road, streaks of wind coasting wildly through his blond locks. _And maybe that cat as well_...

When Jisung finally got to Minho's house, the surroundings lit up the the line of glowing street lamps, he _totally_ didn't expect the see the older boy standing at the doorway, donned in this velvety smooth grey pyjamas that complemented his fluffy curls and brought out the redness of his cheeks.

Jisung could only watch. That is, until Minho's eyes caught him.

"Jisung, hi." Minho grinned, his smile lighting up his whole face.

"H-Hi," Jisung squeaked. Goosebumps decorated his skin when Minho flung an arm around his shoulders, bringing him inside the house.

In the daytime, the interior of Minho's house looked impeccable, fancy even, but at night, it looked... _breathtaking_. Sort of like he'd just stepped into another world.

And he felt good, especially with Minho's warmth.

"Are your parents home?" Jisung asked, his voice quieter than it should've been.

Minho paused, but then smiled and shook his head. "Not tonight."

Jisung wanted to ask why, but then he realized that it could've been considered rude. Plus, he didn't want to spoil tonight for the both of them, so he just kept his mouth shut.

"Alright," he nodded.

"So," Minho stepped away from Jisung, and the latter rubbed his arms as he suddenly felt cold. "What do you want us to do now?" He chuckled. "Sorry -- I really didn't think this meetup through enough."

Jisung shrugged, unable to keep his eyes off Minho. He wondered if the older male even noticed how pink his cheeks were, and if he knew how _cute_ the colour looked on him. At that moment, the blond was just super glad Minho couldn't read his mind.

"Uh..." he sucked in his lip between his teeth, "maybe we could uh, watch a movie? You said you were tired, right? _That_ can help us pass some time."

Minho shoved his hands into the pockets of his pjyama pants, and _giggled._ "Yeah, sure." he smiled, hiding his grin behind the back of his hand. "We can view it in my room."

Jisung's heart did a _thing_. "Really?"

Minho nodded, oblivious to Jisung's inner turmoil. "Yeah. The lighting's better and my bed's big enough for the two of us to lay down on."

"Okay..."

It was easy to watch the movie, mostly because Minho's room already had a TV. It was even _easier_ to choose a movie, which was something romantic and cheesy Minho'd picked. But the easiest part had been the way both boys had cuddled up on the bed, Minho's touch comforting Jisung like second nature.

Of course, Jisung was batshit nervous. He was in Minho's _room,_ for crying out loud. And they were alone, with nothing but a movie and low lit surroundings to keep them entertained. He felt like he minutes away from freaking the hell out, but he also felt all giddy inside. It was very confusing.

Minho was clingy. And his little amused giggles throughout the lackluster movie were admittedly one of the best things about tonight.

Everytime he moved, his and Jisung's arms would brush, and his hair would tickle Jisung's neck. It made miniature firecrackers explode up the younger's skin and his chest clench. Minho also smelled nice, like lavender and all things fresh, and it totally didn't help settle Jisung's already crazy heartbeat.

What was this movie about, again? Jisung couldn't even pay attention to half of what the characters said. He was lost in his own world, a world full of dyed grey hair and soft lavender scents.

That is, until Minho mumbled something.

"I-I'm sorry, what?" Jisung sputtered.

Minho laughed, low and lyrical, and shot Jisung a glance. "I asked about your day."

"Uh. Well. It was okay. Felix told me you were sick though."

"Not really sick," the older boy confirmed. "I was just kinda tired and down in the dumps. My parents let me take the day off, so that was cool, I guess."

"Oh, okay."

Minho's lips lifted into a smile. "Hey, why do you sound so awkward?"

"I'm not awkward."

Minho suddenly turned and fully faced Jisung, drinking in the sight of the shorter with dark eyes. Jisung gulped, which the older _totally_ took notice of, by the way. "...Nah. I think I make you nervous."

"No, you d-don't."

"Okay." Minho's eyes ran all over Jisung's face, and for a second there he didn't utter a word. "...Then do something that proves I don't make you nervous."

Jisung didn't know how to reply. He was frozen, his eyes noticing little details about the boy beside him that made his head feel light. Even in the harsh lighting, Jisung was still reminded of Minho's beauty. That same pinkish blush still dusted his cheeks, and his little smile made Jisung's heart want to jump out of his ribcage. His brown eyes intently stared Jisung down, and looking at them was like peering through another galaxy entirely.

God, Minho was _gorgeous_. And that made Jisung want to cower back and look away, so he did.

"I'm not nervous," he decided on saying.

"Okay."

When Jisung looked up again, Minho's eyes were trained back on the movie, though they looked a lot less alert now.

At this point, Jisung felt like he was gonna _explode_. Minho's presence, his smile, the way he'd stared at Jisung earlier, and the way his head currently laid across Jisung's neck were all too much to handle. He felt like he was going crazy.

"To be honest," Minho's small, tired voice suddenly entered his ears, "at first, before I actually got to talk to you, I was kind of nervous of you."

Jisung's eyebrows rose. "...Why?"

"I have no idea." Minho's voice got even quieter. "You just made me a little nervous. Maybe you were intimidating then. But now, I _definitely_ know you're just a huge softie."

Jisung's face got all hot. "Uh...thanks, I guess."

Minho drowsily laughed in response, and Jisung felt a bit more relaxed.

But then Minho placed his hand on his chest.

"Hey, mind if I do this?" Minho asked, looking up at Jisung through his long eyelashes. "I just... like to hold on to stuff when I'm alseep. You can be my cuddle buddy." He paused. "Or maybe you don't like that -- "

"No." Jisung shook his head. "It's... _okay_. You can hold me." His free hand reached for the remote. "Here, I'll turn off the TV so you can catch some sleep."

"Oh, thanks Jisung." The older boy smiled, looking really pleased. And for some reason that made Jisung feel oddly satisfied. "You're really nice."

"Yeah..." His breath hitched when Minho, at that moment, brought his head up to his chest.

"Woah, okay. Uhm..." Minho's eyelashes fluttered. "Your heart's beating _really_ quickly. You okay?"

Jisung's whole face went red. "Yep. I'm okay." He quickly switched off the TV.

Luckily, Minho didn't say anything else, mostly because he'd fallen asleep. But Jisung didn't think _he'd_ go to sleep anytime soon.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	11. 10. brekkie thingz.

_i swear these titles are getting weirder and weirder-_

~🍓~

  
When Jisung woke up that morning, his mind drew a blank. For a few seconds there, he blinked repeatedly to try and get his eyes used to the faint light seeping through the window's blinds. Then, his eyes ran over the room's standard blue walls, and its polished yet sparse furniture, and that was when he realized that this room wasn't _his_.

His heartbeat quivered, dread pinching his insides and panic flooding every single corner of his mind.

Jisung then sat up, his sudden movements causing a rush of blood to head straight into his face. A slight headache ensued, but at that moment the seventeen-year-old wan't paying much attention to that.

As he caught sight of the flat-screen TV pressed against the wall, realization dawned upon him like a whirlwind.

He was in Minho's room.

 _Shit_ , his mind cursed, and at that moment he just sat there, not really knowing what to do. He was alone on Minho's bed, one of the elder's pillows clutched in his grip, his lavender scent drowning very single one of his senses.

In fright, Jisung dropped the pillow and pushed himself off the -- might he add -- _very_ comfortable bed. He wondered where Minho was, and some part of him hoped that he hadn't somehow embarrassed himself in front of the guy while he'd been asleep.

 _Fuck. I hope I didn't drool or anything_.

Jisung's fingers combed themselves through his bird's nest of a hair as he tried to formulate a plan on how he should proceed.

Obviously, there was a huge chance that Minho was out there right now in the living room, or in the kitchen doing something. And sooner or later he'd have to leave the guy's room and face him.

So, inhaling a giant breath, Jisung proceeded to tiptoe his way down the staircase barefeet, as he and Minho'd left their shoes in the living room the night before so they wouldn't mess up the carpet.

A chill descended over the student's skin, goosebumps creeping up all over his arms at how quiet everything seemed.

But then something stepped right in front of him at that second, turning his blood straight to ice. Jisung felt as if he'd just been electrocuted, and his entire face burned crimson when a shocked whimper left his lips.

 _God, when do I_ not _embarrass myself?_

The person in front of him took a step back, noticeably surprised as well, and he bit his lip, his fingers patting over the material of his green tank top.

" _Oh my god_ \-- Jisung," Minho let out, an amused glint dancing within his eyes. He took another step back. "Sorry, I didn't know you were heading down. Just thought about waking you up, actually. Didn't wanna disturb your sleep, you know?"

Jisung wasn't really paying attention. The warmth that had stuck to his face had now rolled into his chest and gripped his pulsating heart, refusing to let it be despite the fact that the blond now knew that he wasn't in any immediate danger.

Jisung coughed, suddenly feeling hyper self-conscious of his sweatpants and his crumpled plain tshirt.

He looked like shit standing next to Minho, who'd managed to look like he'd just came straight out of a magazine even though it was currently _11 AM in the morning._ As he softly pulled on his sleeves, he was just glad that the older male hadn't seemed to take notice of that.

"Good morning, Minho," Jisung decided to greet, not really finding the courage to look the elder right in the eye. It was then he noticed that Minho had on one of his usual beanies again, but he was too much of a nervous wreck to pay much mind to his curiosity's questions.

"Morning, Sung," Minho casually answered, before waltzing into the kitchen and coming back out with a glass of water in hand.

"What's this for?" Jisung asked a little distractedly as his eyes landed on the older's arms. He didn't know why he looked though, as the image wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, but he'd be a huge liar if he said Minho's arms didn't look good in his forest green tank top.

"It's to keep you hydrated," Minho explained. "They do say 'a glass of water a day keeps the doctor away'." He shrugged. "Or is that an apple?"

" _Please_ , not the apple," Jisung quietly commented. His face flamed red when the older boy just laughed at his -- very unintentional -- joke.

"Yeah, okay," Minho's eyes creased, "sure. Won't mention it again."

Jisung's face got even more red, and he took the glass of water from Minho's grip, their fingers touching on the way.

The surface of the transparent cup wetted his skin, and as he took a couple sips the cooled water relaxed the tension in his shoulders and untangled the knots in his stomach.

"Thanks," Jisung muttered as he passed back the cup to Minho. He sighed and shook out the hair that had gotten in front of his eyes. Minho's stare was on him the entire time. "Uh...maybe I can head home now. I mean -- I don't wanna intrude in case your parents are home. Are they home?"

Minho settled the glass cup on the edge of the long and wooden dinner table. By now his eyebrows were furrowed, his golden-flecked eyes unreadable for a second there.

"...Well," he finally began, "they're not home. At least not yet. But, you can stay for a bit though for breakfast, I guess."

Honestly, _now_ Jisung was freaking out. Minho's reluctance to make him leave and head back to his house was the only thing he could think about right now. Before this, he'd imagined that he was kind of wasting the older's time by being there, only for him now to realize he'd been wrong about it.

A thick silence sprouted between them as Minho waited for an answer to his request.

Jisung nervously cleared his throat. "U-Uh, okay..."

Minho's lips stretched into a full-fledged grin, and he honestly looked so elated that the younger boy was left to wonder if he had _that_ much of an impact on Minho's emotions.

Nah, that probably wasn't true.

"Sweet," Minho answered, before folding his arms with a thoughtful look crossing over his face. Jisung's fidgety eyes stared at his arms again, but flickered away once the older's voice was heard once more.

"Okay. Let's do it this way," Minho continued, his stare boring right into Jisung's. "You can go take a shower, and I'll lend you some of my clothes."

"Wait, _really_?" Jisung could only choke out, but Minho just casually waved off the stupefied look on his face.

"Yeah. I'm sure there's something in my closet that'll fit you," Minho replied. He rubbed his hands together. "And after this is done, we can dig into that rather late breakfast I was talking about."

Jisung bit his lip, his swift heartbeat pounding in his ears. He slid his fingers through his bleached hair -- a nervous habit. "You cook?"

Minho snickered, but it wasn't obnoxious sounding or anything. He met Jisung's gaze, fond. "Nah, I can't cook to save my life. Unless... you won't mind having some burnt toast for breakfast."

Jisung shrugged, a little bit more comfortable now. "I mean, I guess I won't."

Minho laughed, and Jisung joined in not too long after.

"But, even if you agreed," Minho added inbetween laughs, pulling out a chair, "I still wouldn't give you anything burnt. Wouldn't want to kill you or anything. Plus, you deserve better than that."

Jisung didn't reply. He _couldn't_ reply, because he had _no idea_ what he could've said in response to Minho's words. Luckily, the guy was now occupied with his phone, so he didn't see the awkward expression that'd now shadowed Jisung's face, thank God.

 _Minho_ , he thought as he trudged towards the bathroom, _why do you have to be so fucking nice?_

~🍓~

If someone had told Jisung that he'd be having breakfast outdoors Saturday morning with the one guy he'd thought he'd never have the guts to talk to a couple weeks ago, he would've straight up _laughed_ in their face. But that was exactly what was happening right now, and it didn't feel real in the slightest.

  
The sunlight was at its peak as both boys trekked through the silent neighbourhood, the younger holding onto his bike's handle as they wheeled it back to his place. And as Jisung had predicted, his parents weren't that bothered he'd chosen to spend last night with some guy at his school, and it wasn't long before he and Minho were back on the road to go get themselves their desired breakfast.

Where Minho'd decided to bring them into was a pretty small yet cute cafe, one Jisung had never entered before. The whole arrangement of the place's decor was neat, with circular tables and cushioned chairs. A majority of the walls had been coated in pastel, and honestly, Jisung dug it.

Minho looked pretty enthused that the younger now knew about this place, and it was contagious, as Jisung found it hard _not_ to smile or at least chuckle.

The smell of freshly baked goods drifted along the building's walls, and the cafe's intrumental music created this tranquil ambience that Jisung could really find himself getting used to. He really liked it here, and the feeling only grew as his eyes followed Minho as the older went to order for the both of them.

Obviously, Jisung could order for himself. He could _pay_ for his stuff as well, if not for the fact that Minho'd rejected every single excuse he could conjure up that'd allow him to actually do such a thing. The older male really wanted to pay for both their orders, so Jisung had no choice but to eventually agree.

It only flattered him to no end how generous and charming Minho was being. Seriously, why was he so nice?

Jisung soon discovered that the cafe's breakfast options were just as bomb as its atmosphere. His glazed pancakes looked scrumptious, especially with all the syrup, and that really heightened his mood because he just so happened to be a _huge_ pancake lover.

As he took his first bite, his taste buds exploded at the flavour. He was about to take another one when someone's knees gently bumped with his, and that'd when he remembered that he was currently sitting across from Minho.

"It's really good, huh?" Minho asked. A delighted chuckle left his lips when Jisung just nodded. The cyan blue of his beanie only brought out the colour of his crinkled eyes. Brown with gold swimming in them, just like caramel.

"I really like it," Jisung said.

"I knew you would. Got them to add more syrup since I figured you'd appreciate that as well," Minho replied. He played with the checkered red straw of his milkshake, taking a sip before staring at the younger again.

It legitimately made Jisung a lot more skittish, but he chose not to focus on that. He took another bite of his pancakes.

"You do that a lot," Minho suddenly spoke up.

"Do what?"

Minho leaned into his seat and just shook his head, looking a bit timid for the first time ever. It really ignited Jisung's curiosity.

"Oh, come on, Minho. Tell me."

"Nah. It's really nothing. It's dumb."

At this, Jisung pouted, because he really wanted to know what Minho had been planning to say, even when he figured it'd probably end up with his face burning up again.

Before Jisung knew it, Minho's index finger poked his cheek. He retracted it before the younger could react, the colour of his cheeks flushed with a red tint that looked scarily close to a rose.

"You store food in your cheeks before swallowing it," Minho admitted, rubbing the back of his flushed neck. He took yet another hurried sip of his milkshake. "Sorry -- That was weird. I just noticed it... I guess?"

Jisung bit hard on his lip, but shook his head. "I... I guess I do that a lot. It's not a weird thing to notice, though."

"Oh, okay."

The awkward atmosphere between them was so thick you could slice it with a butcher's knife. Jisung didn't favour it all that much.

" _So_ ," he cleared his throat, wanting to steer the topic into another direction. "This food is absolutely _delicious_. Now I know I've been missing out on a _lot_."

Minho's eyes gleamed. "I know, right? I've always liked it here and I'm glad I got to share this experience with you."

Jisung looked around the cafe, suddenly feeling a tad bit overwhelmed. Minho's comment had quickened his heartbeat, and it literally made it worse when all he could smell at that moment was older's floral scent since he was wearing his shirt.

This time, the awkwardness in the air had risen so high it made Jisung stiff, and it became absolutely crucial at that point in time for him to find another conversation starter.

So, without really thinking about it, he let out, "Hey, I saw a cat at your house the last time I was here. Is it like, your pet or something?"

Minho froze. Like, he actually froze up, and Jisung's eyes widened as alarm flooded his system.

"Did I -- did I say something wrong?"

Minho sucked the upper part of his lip between his teeth, and he let go of his milkshake entirely.

His fingers pulled on his blue beanie, adjusting it as if he wanted it to cover more of his hair, and Jisung became even more worried.

"Minho?"

"Yeah, the cat." His smile was completely wiped off.

 _Great going, Jisung_ , the blond teen's mind berated him, _now you pissed him off. Wow_.

"Are you okay?" He asked, cringing at how drastically the atmosphere had changed.

"Uhh... yeah!" Minho forced out. "I'm okay." He played with his milkshake's straw again. "Anyway, about the cat..."

"Yeah...?"

The silver-haired boy chuckled, but it didn't sound natural. "Yes, I've got a cat."

"That's cool. It's really cute, by the way."

The tips of Minho's ears glowed a deep pink. He looked kinda embarrassed. "Thanks..."

At this time, the rest of Jisung's pancakes had already gotten cold, but even if they were still warm he wouldn't have had the zeal to eat them because Minho's change in behaviour seriously bothered him.

"...Minho, you sure you're okay?"

"Of course I am."

"I don't really think you are... Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?"

Jisung _really_ should've have thought this through, because next thing he knew he and Minho were playing rock, paper, scissors and he ended up losing. The bargaining chip was that he had to do something cute (which had been Minho's idea, by the way).

"Shit, I guess I have to do this now, huh," Jisung muttered, less than amused.

Minho took a sip of his milkshake, a smirk gracing his lips. " _Yeppp_."

Jisung knew he had to make this quick. So, without thinking much about it, he folded his arms and jutted his lower lip into a pout, pretending that he was a cross little baby. He _hmphed_ repeatedly, narrowing his eyes at Minho, while the older was currently laughing his ass off.

"Oh my god," Minho wiped his eyes, "that... that was something else."

Jisung felt as if his whole face had been dipped in heat. He just prayed no one else has witnessed his actions. "That was _horrible_."

"Nah," Minho shook his head, "horrible isn't the word."

"Then what is it?"

All of a sudden, all Jisung could see was the mesmerizing sight of brown doused in gold, as Minho had now shortened the distance between them. Spotting a couple faint freckles here and there on the latter's skin, Jisung could only watch as Minho broke the charged eye-contact between them, long lashes feathering his cheeks when he focused them on the surface of their table. He looked a bit shy.

Then, Minho slid his arm over the table, and his fingers bumped into the younger's. Sparks detonated under Jisung's skin as the elder's thumb steadily rubbed his knuckles and drew imaginary lines on top his fingers.

The grey haired male let his thumb linger on Jisung's palm a while longer, before letting go. He met Jisung's stare again. "Honestly... it was cute."

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	12. 11. the truth.

~🍓~

  
"So... wait, you mean you _actually_ stayed over at Minho's _house_ , _and_ he took you out to some cafe so you two could have a 'late breakfast' together?" Changbin voiced out to his younger blond friend early that Monday morning during study hall. His normally blank set of eyes were now widened as he tried to process this new piece of information.

Jisung chewed absentmindedly on the rim of his pencil, and then looked around the room to make sure that no one else was listening to their conversation. Changbin could get particularly loud at times, and he didn't want him spewing out one of his farfetched theories when Minho could enter the hall at any moment.

"Well... _yeah_ ," he replied, sparing his friend another glance. And he didn't like what he saw next.

Changbin's shocked expression had now simmered down into one of smugness, as if he knew something Jisung didn't.

The blond rolled his eyes. "What now?"

Changbin leaned in, making it seem as if he had something _so highly conspiratory_ to share. As Jisung rolled his eyes once again, his friend forcefully gripped onto the sleeve of his tan shaded hoodie and let out, "Ji, Minho just took you out on a date, and you aren't even aware of it."

Jisung shrugged Changbin's hand off him, his mind racing at what his friend had just said. Of course, he _should've_ expected Changbin to say something along those lines, but that didn't mean it bothered him any less.

He pointed his bitten pencil at Changbin threateningly. "Shut it."

The raven haired male threw his head back and _laughed_ , before gesturing at the very obvious sight of his friend's tomato-red face. "You look like a fucking stop sign."

Jisung patted his cheeks, eyes blown as wide as saucers. "I do _not_." 

He narrowed his eyes at his friend who was clearly having a _splendid_ time enjoying his suffering, and he really didn't like that. Of course he didn't. So, to get his guffawing friend to stop laughing, he blurted: "Why don't you tell me about you and Felix, huh? Any juicy stuff going on between you guys that I'm not aware of?"

Changbin paused, and then shuddered _way_ too overexaggeratedly. "Okay, _ew_."

  
Jisung just shrugged, relieved that at least _now_ his friend's mind was on something else other than his and Minho's supposed 'date'. "Don't pretend to be grossed out. I know you wanna tell me all the details."

Changbin rolled his eyes. "There's nothing new going on, Ji. Suho, the poetry club executive, just droned _on and on_ about whatever poetry slam event they're gonna have in a few months. It was mind-numbingly _boring_." As if to further prove his point, he let out a drawn out sigh. "But, at least _some_ thing happened. It was quite small, though."

As Changbin continued to speak, Jisung temporarily zoned out. And usually, he never really zoned out of Changbin's words because, despite how shockingly _vulgar_ the guy could get at times, he'd never had anything uninteresting to say.

So why did Jisung suddenly stop paying attention, you ask?

Because right then, at that moment, no one other than _Lee Felix himself_ decided to saunter inside the room in his intimidating and domineering glory. And the blond Australian was currently heading Jisung's and Changbin's way while the dark haired male was still chattering excessively about him.

Jisung slapped the latter's arm, startling him. "Changbin, code red. _Code red!_ Felix's coming this way."

"That's what he did next!" Changbin exclaimed, excited at what he was possibly planning to say next. "He came over and -- _wait_... How'd you know?"

Felix was now behind Changbin, an unreadable expression shadowing his face. As if the shorter male could sense his presence -- and it wasn't hard because Felix was someone who simply just _couldn't_ be ignored -- he immediately quieted down, and slowly looked at him.

"Uhm... _Hi_?" Changbin greeted, his voice cracking at the end.

Felix slightly smirked. With his slicked white hair and black turtleneck, he reminded Jisung of a _Final Fantasy_ character.

"Hey, Changbin." Felix nodded at Jisung. "...Jisung."

 _Is this how third-wheeling feels like?_ Jisung briefly thought when Felix proceeded to whisper something in Changbin's ear, before heading off into the other direction. During the whole time his expression remained unfazed and unbothered, very much unlike the way several emotions seemed to flit through Changbin's face the moment the white haired male left.

"Changbin," Jisung demanded, smacking the shorter's arm, "what the fuck was that?"

Changbin bit his lip. For a second there, he actually looked a bit conflicted. "It's nothing."

" _Changbin_." Jisung glared at his friend.

"He just wants to hang out with me, no big deal about it," the older boy explained with a noncommital shrug. But yet still, Jisung didn't really believe everything he said.

The blond male contemplated utilizing his trademarked _Jisung Glare_ on Changbin to get the guy to tell him the truth, but then he decided against it. He had a feeling he'd be pushing it if he went any further.

"...Fine," Jisung mumbled. "Whatever."

~🍓~

Jisung arrived at school that Tuesday morning to meet something unexpected in his locker. It was another note from his supposed 'secret noona'. Luckily, Changbin was nowhere around because he had to use the bathroom, and so that meant there'd be no unneeded words concerning the matter this morning.

Without wasting any more time, Jisung pulled open the letter, only to be faced with writing that seemed rushed and not at all like the neat handwriting the girl had graced him with that past week. There weren't any gifts around either.

_'I'll tell you who I am. Meet me at the library at around 3:30 this afternoon.'_

Jisung's heart skipped a couple beats in apprehension. Yes, he'd been wanting to meet the person who'd been sending him those confession letters ever since last week, but now that the opportunity had now presented itself, all he could feel was anxiety. 

_What if the meeting went badly? What was he supposed to say? Who could the girl be?_ Several questions like these buzzed around the seventeen-year-old's mind as he folded the letter and put it in his pocket.

  
Jisung willed himself to relax, and tried to convince himself that everything would go fine over and over again. Nothing would go wrong, _right_?

~🍓~

  
Yet again, Minho was absent at school today, and although the thought itself was super dumb, Jisung was glad the older male wasn't around, because that meant he wasn't the 'secret noona'. Gosh, it was so stupid to think about it like that, but then again Jisung had a _Seo Changbin_ for a best friend.

As the afternoon classes went by, Jisung felt more and more nervous. And it sucked, because one of the things he hated most was feeling anxious.

He literally despised the feeling, but at that moment he could do nothing to get rid of it.

As soon as the last class of the was done, Jisung sprung up from his seat, shoved his books into his bag, and ran out of the classroom. He ignored Changbin's calls for him and the other students' curious stares.

He just wanted to get this meeting over with, before he actually combusted from all the stress he was experiencing.

Upon reaching the menacing doors of the school library, Jisung slowed down and tried to calm his alarming heart rate.

 _Okay, Jisung. You got this._ With a deep inhale, Jisung entered the quiet library, the intense air conditioning of the place swamping him almost immediately.

There was no one there, except for the scraggy old librarian situated at her usual seat. When her snake-like eyes behind her black-rimmed spectacles met Jisung's in a silent greeting, he inwardly shuddered.

He was still kind of early, so he looked for a seat at the corner and took a couple more deep breaths.

Jisung soon checked his watch. 3:40 PM. He began to get a bit agitated. _No one_ had entered the library since he'd gotten in, and at this point the anxiety had started eating him alive.

3:45 PM.

Still nothing.

3:51 PM.

A girl had entered, but she left soon after she'd borrowed a book.

Jisung rubbed his hands together, trying hard not to dwell on the fact that he _may_ be getting stood up in _school_ , of all places.

Changbin'd texted him a couple minutes prior asking where he was, to which he replied that he'd already gone home. Now, however, he wished he hadn't said that. Even the librarian had started watching him weirdly.

At approximately five minutes _after_ four o'clock, someone new stepped in. Jisung's heart leaped in anticipation, that is before his eyes fell on the actual person.

Clad in his basketball wear was _Hwang Hyunjin_. Jisung watched as the taller ran his hand through his dark locks as he quietly conversed with the librarian, and the blond felt his mood darken by a tenfold.

What the fuck was _he_ doing here? Jisung didn't know Hwang Hyunjin personally, but he sure knew the guy was barely seen with a book.

... _Wait_...

Jisung's pulse raced when Hyunjin turned around, finally acknowledging his presence. His hair looked damp, and his cheeks were a creamy shade of pink, which meant he'd probably came straight from practice.

Jisung's fists tremoured in disdain when Hyunjin strolled towards the book shelf near him without a word, before leisurely picking out a novel as if the blond wasn't currently facing a life crisis right about now.

Jisung decided to look away then, already tired of waiting for the person who'd sent him those letters. He stood up, ready to head out when Hyunjin suddenly blocked his way.

Jisung's jaw clenched. "Excuse me."

"...Weren't we scheduled to meet here...?" Hyunjin replied after a moment of silence.

Jisung blankly stared at the guy for a couple seconds, but then his mind went to a standstill when the implication of his words dawned on him.

"Wait -- _What_?"

Hyunjin's stoic expression cracked, replaced with a simper. "What?"

Jisung became ticked off. "What do you mean by us 'being scheduled to meet here'?"

Hyunjin fixed his stance so he could face the younger male more squarely. "...I meant what I said. I'm that noona girl you wanted to know so much about."

Realization dawned on Jisung, unsettling at its finest. His thoughts wildly battled with each other, and his fists tightly clenched. "W-What are you talking about? Are you _serious_?"

Hyunjin's mocking simper turned into a satisfied smirk. "Uh, yeah. Thought it'd be funny to play this prank on you, can't believe it worked."

By now, Jisung was _seething_. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What, you thought some girl actually _liked_ you? Is that why you look so pissed?" Hyunjin asked, having the audacity to _laugh_. "You shouldn't frown though. Smiling suits you more."

Jisung remained perfectly still as he watched Hyunjin walk away from the library.

What the hell just happened? Did he _just_ discover that Hyunjin had been the 'noona girl' all along? And the guy did it because he thought it'd be a _funny prank_?

Anger engulfed Jisung. Fuelled by impulse and aggravation that ravaged his entire body, he stormed out of the library, forgetting he even had a bag.

Hyunjin was already quite a long way ahead by the time Jisung was outside, but Jisung didn't let that deter him.

"YAH, HWANG HYUNJIN!" He roared as he ran straight for the aforementioned male. Before Hyunjin could react Jisung jumped on him, causing them both to fall to the ground.

By this time a couple of baffled students had stopped to watch, but Jisung couldn't care less about their stares.

"Get off me!" Hyunjin yelled, pushing Jisung off of him.

"You think this is a fucking _joke_?!" Jisung exclaimed, before socking the older male on the cheek. "You're such a stupid, self-absorbed disgusting rat! I fucking _hate_ you!"

Hyunjin gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Jisung's arms. His unexpected strength caught Jisung off-guard, because soon enough the older boy had him pinned below him. "Shut up!"

Jisung never thought he'd get pinned to the ground by a sweaty guy in his entire life, but here he was, and he hated it. He glared daggers into Hyunjin's skull and flailed all about, kicking the former in his stomach.

Getting another punch on Hyunjin's irritatingly attractive face, Jisung remarked, "You're such a fucking asshole. You know that, right?"

Hyunjin sprung to his feet, before grabbing onto Jisung's shirt and slamming him into a locker. " _I'm_ the asshole? You're the one who's the asshole! You're the one who's been rude and incredibly fucking selfish _this entire time_! You're such a _fucking bitch_ , I practically can't _stand_ the look of you at times!"

Hyunjin's glare looked so heated and furious that it actually _scared_ Jisung for a second, but he quickly regained his composure and gripped the older's fists.

"Let me go," Jisung spat, "Or else you'll regret it."

"What're you gonna do, huh?" Hyunjin taunted. "Are you gonna land a punch on me and then run away like a coward like you _always do_?"

Jisung roughly shoved him away, the anger in him spreading like a forest fire. "Shut the _fuck_ up." He advanced towards the taller, about to hit him again when something hard collided with his cheek, causing him to fall.

 _Fuck, this was definitely going to bruise later_.

Over him, Hyunjin stood with a lethal glare on his face. His fists were clenched, expression hard.

By now some staff had arrived, breaking up the already extinguished fight between the two boys.

One helped a fuming Jisung to his feet, her words entering in through one ear and out the other.

"I really freaking hate you, Hwang Hyunjin," Jisung whispered, too tired to even think about the consequences of what just took place right now.

His jaw worked as he focused his glares on the older student, who'd now begun to watch everything and everyone else _but_ him.

~🍓~

**a/n** : aahh this chapter was bad i'm sorry

thoughts? 


	13. 12. act cool.

~🍓~

  
Jisung rolled his eyes for the millionth time as his parents discussed about him over dinner, trying to figure out what caused this certain 'aggression' of his towards the aggravating specimen known as Hwang Hyunjin, _a.k.a_ , his presumably _lovely_ and _kind_ school mate. It had already been a couple hours since his and Hyunjin's parents had met at the principal's office to talk more about their fight, and by now Jisung was already _over_ it all.

Jisung all but ignored his parents as soon as dinner was over, dropping his plate and utensils into the dishwasher and heading straight for his room. In his haste, he almost bumped into his little sister.

Now, usually when something of that sort happened, Areum would most likely just scoff and lightly shove him back or something with those frail arms of hers, but today she'd developed a sudden zit the size of a continent (in her words) right on her forehead, which she was still pretty vexed about. And this, in turn, caused her immediate outburst.

"Watch it, scar-face," she hissed out in her fit, storming into her room to add on her third facial cream for the evening.

Areum's comment wasn't even clever or innovative; it wasn't even funny. And yet, in Jisung's distraught and furious state, the comment hit him more than he'd thought it would.

Of course, ever since he and his parents came home from that hour-long session with Hyunjin's self-righteous parents, he'd purposefully hidden his face with one of his favourite hoodies. But still, that hadn't been enough to cover up the absolutely _heinous_ bruise growing on the side of his jaw around his cheek.

The harsh scarlet of the bruise constrasted monstrously with his tan skin, painting it this horrid image that Jisung couldn't even stand to look at for long.

 **emobin** 💣: jesus, you actually fought with 'the hwang hyunjin'?

 **jisugh** : yes 😧

 **emobin** 💣: the one time i leave school earlier than usual

 **jisugh** : u know i hate you, right?

 **emobin** 💣: i love you too

 **emobin** 💣: [in the straightest way a gay guy can ever love his best friend]

 **jisugh** : 😒😒😧

 **emobin** 💣: something worse happened. u only use emojis a lot when ur mad

 **jisugh** : guess who's gonna have detention this upcoming saturday morning, the day that supposed stupid 'valentine's day dance' is supposed to be held?😠😠😠😠😠😠

 **jisugh** : and guess who i'm gonna be spending that time with? 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

 **emobin** 💣: oh shit

 **jisugh** : hwang fucking hyunjin 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

 **emobin** 💣: thats an excessive use of emojis there ji please calm down

 **jisugh** : i'm going to go to sleep. i need to relax before i go crazy 😣😣😣😣😣😣😣😣😣😣

 **emobin** 💣: okay ji. get some rest. i need you in an healthy state of mind, ok?

 **emobin** 💣: i'll call you later today, and i'll see you at school tmrw

 **jisugh** : i'm skipping school tomorrow 😐😐😐😐😐😐

 **emobin** 💣: then i'll come visit you when i'm done with class. i'll bring some icecream and chips as well, okay?

 **jisugh** : okay ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

 **emobin** 💣: jeez ur so passive agressive today ji

 **jisugh** : shut up ugh

With that, Jisung threw his phone on his bed, got under the covers and covered his face with his arms. When he'd texted Changbin about missing school he'd never even told his parents prior, but he was pretty sure they'd let him stay considering the state his face was in.

 _Ugh_ , Jisung inwardly groaned. _I bet I look even more fucked up than usual_.

Normally, Jisung considered himself to be a pretty average looking guy, but due to the recent events that took place in his school, he was now beginning to dread showing his face to anyone.

 _Minho_ , in particular. There was _no way_ he could see Jisung all butchered up like this. It would lower his self-confidence even further.

 _Don't even know why you're getting so worked up over how another guy sees you_ , Jisung thought to himself, a little ashamed. _Who cares anyway?_

If he said he felt okay right now, he'd be lying. He was angry, frustrated, and a little bit hurt. Hyunjin's earlier words about him faking the whole love-letter thing stung a little too deep, and it kind of made him feel _undesirable_ , to say the least. Of course, Jisung hadn't really been interested in forming romantic relations with anyone before, but that didn't make Hyunjin's revelation negatively tamper with his thought process any less.

Jisung closed his eyes, imagining darkness for a while. Then all of a sudden, Minho's face formed behind his eyelids, just as it always did lately whenever he was about to go to sleep. The older's image smiled, as if it was trying to reassure Jisung that everything would be alright, and this time around, the blond let himself believe that. Just this once.

~🍓~

Jisung's parents hadn't bothered to wake him up the next morning, which was just fine with the seventeen-year-old. He laid in bed until the bright rays of the sun got too unbearable on the other side of his window, and as he sat up he took notice of his forgotten phone that lay next to him.

He turned it on. A small 23% of battery life flashed at the upper right side of the screen, and the boy groaned.

Jisung was about to charge it when an unread message caught his attention.

  
Realizing the contact name to be Minho's, he jotted in his passcode and read the full text.

 **min** 😇: jisung are you okay? i heard some people talking about this fight that'd gone on yesterday between you and someone else.  
 _sent 1:25 am_

 **min** 😇: i hope you didn't get hurt.  
 _sent 1:25 am_

 **min** 😇: you're probably asleep right now, so i shouldn't bother you. but, i'm really worried about you.  
 _sent 1:26 am_

 **min** 😇: ahh, at this point i'm just rambling on. but good night, i guess. even if you're probably asleep already 😂.  
 _sent 1:26 am_

 **min** 😇: i'm sorry.  
 _sent 1:26 am_

 **min** 😇: anyway, i'll see you at school, right?  
 _sent 1:26 am_

Before he knew what was happening, Jisung had already begun to smile. Of course, it was such a _Minho_ thing to text him at night solely because he wanted to check up on him. And _yeah_ , those actions of his made Jisung happier than he'd like to admit.

He paused, trying to think up a response that would accurately portray his gratitude towards the older boy without all the cringey stuff attached to it.

As soon as he'd finally decided on a reply, one that ran along the lines of _Good Morning_ and _Thanks for I dunno, caring about me_ , a new _er_ set of messages jumped across his screen, ones that Jisung himself never really expected.

 **min** 😇: good morning sung!

 **min** 😇: anyway, i decided i'm heading over today to your house. figured there was a chance you'd stay home today. i want us to talk :)

Jisung's smile instantly fell off his face.

_Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit --_

Without thinking about it deeply enough Jisung's thumbs flew over his phone's screen, cultivating something he thought was the most 'suitable' response.

 **jisung** : hahahaha what?

 **jisung** : good morning, but i dont think you should come over

 **jisung** : i'm sick, hahahahaha

The worst part, other than Jisung's cringeworthy replies, was that Minho didn't respond. He probably hadn't even _read_ them either, which meant he was 100% on his way to Jisung's house, and who possibly show up at the least convenient time as well.

Fuck.

Jisung tried to communicate with the older again.

 **jisung** : please, do not come over. my coughs are infectious and i look like death. i'm just worried about your safety

 **jisung** : please

Minho didn't respond to those texts either. _Darn it_ , Jisung thought, he knew now he was, quite frankly, _screwed_.

The anxious blond threw his phone on his bed and rushed to go take a shower, before spending a considerable amount of time just madly shifting through his closet for the perfect clothes to wear.

Fuck it. Fuck _this_ , how was he supposed to find something nice to wear when most of his clothes consisted of hobo-wear and when he had this nasty ass bruise on his face? On any other day Jisung wouldn't have cared but it wasn't any other day that _Minho_ showed up to his house to 'talk'. And to make matters worse, they were going to be _alone_.

With a loud grunt, Jisung finally pulled on a navy blue hoodie and black pants, which he considered 'a little on the okay side', and then sprayed himself with only a bit of cologne because he didn't wanna try _too_ hard.

He ran to the bathroom and stared at himself through the mirror.

 _Oh crap, how the hell am I going to cover this bruise up?!_ He thought, his eyes widening at how noticeable the purple marking on his cheek was. It looked absolutely horrible.

Jisung bit his lip, thinking of several alternatives. There was a possible solution, but the blond was pretty hesitant about it at first. He really didn't wanna resort to it, but at this point he had no choice.

 _Shit, I hope Areum doesn't have any surveillance cameras inside her room_ , Jisung thought, _I don't wanna get skinned alive_. He didn't want to enter her room and use her stuff on his face, but he'd seen all the makeup she'd used over the years, and those things covered up physical imperfections pretty darn well.

With this thought in mind, he tiptoed into his little sister's room, hoping it wasn't locked or anything, only for his eyesight to be bombarded with an explosion of _pink_ and all things fluffy. The amount of pastel in there gave Jisung a headache, but he couldn't focus on that right now. He was on a mission that he could not fail.

"Okay, where the hell is the concealer?" He headed first for the vanity table and looked through all the tubes and idle lipstick all over it. Then, at the corner of his eye he spotted something that looked like a compass because of its round shape, and he decided to open it up. Deciding the beige shade in it was close enough to his skin tone, he used the brush attached and swiped it against his bruise. Concealer or not, he hoped this thing could cover it up before Minho arrived.

He then looked at the mirror, and his eyes almost dropped out of their sockets. A pale pink was now dusted over his cheek, prominent enough to make it seem as if he was blushing.

His eyes then fell on the compact in his hand, only now noticing the cursive _Baby Blush_ encrypted around it.

And to make things way worse, the doorbell rang at that exact moment. Jisung sprang upwards, almost dropping the blush. He shoved the makeup back into its compartment, and ran out of Areum's room, trying his hardest to wipe away the blush with his hands. Gross bruise be damned. He did _not_ want to get caught with blush all over his face. Especially not in front of Minho.

When he finally entered the livingroom, he pulled his hood over his head and stared at the floor, before opening the door after he'd confirmed that it was indeed Minho.

"Woah, Jisung, I didn't think you'd be home," Minho spoke, his soft way of speaking digging delightful daggers into Jisung's heart. The blond concluded at that moment he was probably going nuts. "But I'm glad."

"Uh," Jisung sniffed, and then coughed, "yeah." Still looking at the floor, he waddled past Minho and locked the door.

Minho was looking at him now. "...You okay? I heard about that fight, and I hope you didn't get hurt."

"I'm, uh," Jisung bit his lip, "I'm fine. Uh, thanks for asking."

Gosh, this was so awkward.

He snuck a look at Minho, realizing the older had on a blue turtleneck sweater that matched his, as well as a beanie that complemented his whole look. His chest tightened at this observation.

"Uh -- " He started, but was stopped by the older male.

"Jisung, why aren't you looking up at me? Is something wrong?"

Jisung almost choked on nothing. " _What_?" He quickly shook his head. "I'm -- Nothing's wrong. Do you _want_ me to stare at you?"

Now it was _Minho's_ turn to get all choked up. "I-I don't _mean_ it like _that_. I just -- you're acting really weird right now and it's worrying me."

"I'm not acting weird."

"But you keep staring at the ground. Is there something interesting there?" Minho questioned. Jisung sputtered when the taller suddenly knelt, their eyes meeting as a result, and he quickly looked away. "Jisung."

"W-What?" Jisung couldn't help but gulp. It certainly didn't help matters when the older's eyes were literally as breathtaking as they were intimidating.

"Is there something you're hiding? Look, I know I came here on short notice, but I just really wanted to see how you were doing. I could've headed to school, but I was really worried. And now, here you are avoiding all eye contact with me." Minho sighed. "Maybe I should just leave."

Jisung reached out and grabbed Minho's arm, surprising the both of them. " _No_ , you can't. I mean -- I'm sorry. You don't need to leave. I don't _want_ you to leave."

"Then why are you acting like this?"

Jisung inhaled a breath, wanting to say something, but he stopped himself, _yet again_.

"Jisung."

"Yeah?"

A tense silence passed, and then Minho sighed again. A surprised ( _and embarrassing_ ) yelp escaped Jisung's lips when the taller unexpectedly placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him closer to his chest. The blond literally _froze_ as Minho hooked a thumb under his chin and made him look up, straight into his gorgeous eyes.

Jisung's heartbeat went wild, slamming harshly against his ribcage. His toes curled as Minho's brown eyes studied his face like he was analysing a piece of artwork, and he wanted nothing more at that point than to crawl in a hole and _die_.

He bit on his tongue as Minho's hand cupped the side of his face, his thumb slowly coming to a halt around his cheek. _A.k.a_ the area where that dumb blush had been.

"I -- I," Jisung stuttered, trying to explain himself. "Hyunjinpunchedmeandthisstupidbruiseformedasaresultandit'sliterallysouglyand -- "

Minho chuckled. "Did you use a blush? That's cute."

Jisung stepped away, missing the way the older's expression deflated a little. "Uh -- _No_?"

"Hey, I don't judge."

"I didn't use any blush."

Minho raised his hands. "Sure, bro." His eyes ran all over Jisung's face, stopping just below his nose, and Jisung felt all kinds of self-conscious.

"I swear, I didn't put any makeup on. So stop staring," Jisung looked away. He was glad Minho didn't seem affected by his hideous bruise, but he _certainly_ didn't know how to react to Minho watching him so intensely. "Y-You said you wanted to talk. What do you wanna talk about?"

Minho blinked, taken aback. "Oh! Uh," he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. I wanted to ask you something."

Even when Jisung had reverted back to staring at the floor, he could still feel Minho's constant stares. He swallowed hard, determined to ignore it as much as he could. "Okay, well what is it?"

~🍓~

**a/n** : welcome to the absolute worst chapter of mr purrfect! thoughts?


	14. 13. new questions.

~🍓~

  
A moment of silence passed. One that was terse and stiff and, quite possibly, the most anxiety-inducing silence Jisung had ever had to endure in the entirety of the dull excuse known as his life.

And the quietness that had settled in the livingroom was only made worse by Minho's apparent reluctance to spit out whatever he'd planned on saying.

Jisung's fists clenched. He looked up, his gaze meeting with Minho's which had an array of conflicting emotions waging war within them, ones that the blond couldn't quite figure out. He didn't really know if he _wanted_ to figure them out, either. All he wanted was for the uncomfortable atmosphere to clear itself out.

Jisung's stare wavered, because, when did it ever _not_ waver, especially when someone like _Minho_ was involved?

"Uh -- " Jisung cleared his throat, alerting Minho's attention, which only served to make things worse. "The question. Uhm -- y-you had something you...w-wanted to tell me?"

Minho stepped closer, which resulted in Jisung unintentionally taking a step back. If the older boy had been bothered by this move he hardly displayed it in his expression.

"Have you eaten breakfast?"

Jisung blinked. He looked up, warmth spreading across his cheeks when his and Minho's eyes interlocked. Gulping, he shook his head.

Minho beamed. "Cool! Then let's get breakfast outside. Luckily I brought my wallet along."

"Uh -- " but Jisung didn't get to insert another word in. Minho'd already grabbed his hand, his _own_ hand warm and just the right kind of soft, and pulled him out of the house as gently as he possibly could.

"Min -- Minho -- " Jisung tried again.

"You're worried about the bruise aren't you?" The older hypothesized, quipping a perfectly arched eyebrow. He grinned at the still stupefied younger male. "It looks fine, don't worry. I didn't even _pay_ attention to it until now."

"I-I just -- "

"Trust me, Jisung. If you're self-conscious about that that bruise, then you shouldn't. You look okay -- _better than okay_ , actually -- and if you don't want me to then I won't comment about that blush you used earlier -- although that looked pretty great on you as well."

"I -- " Jisung stuttered, trying his hardest not to _explode_ in this situation. It wasn't like he was pissed, no, it was because Minho's comments about his appearance was making it hard for his heart to stop feeling very not-straight things. Very _gay_ things.

If Changbin was here he'd probably have a field day, blowing his rainbow glitter right at his friend's face just 'cause he was a little shit like that. Jisung shuddered.

"Jisung?"

"Minho," the blond stated. "I'm...flattered you think I look great despite the shitty condition of my face. And I'd love to go out and have some breakfast with you. _But_ ," he inhales a deep breath, "I need to get the spare key, 'cause there's no way we're leaving without it."

Minho's shoulders lowered, a mask of understanding shielding his face right then. "...Oh. That makes sense."

Jisung wrung his hands together. They felt _so_ sweaty. Fuck. " _Yeah_."

"You can go get it. I'll wait for you."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

Jisung fought to remain composed as he re-entered the house, biting hard on his bottom lip. Forgetting about his plans of hanging out with Changbin after the school day ended at the moment -- because, I mean, who can blame him -- he got hold of the spare house key, and met up with the grey haired male outside. With that, both boys set out on their journey to get some breakfast.

~🍓~

Said journey turned out pretty short, because around where Jisung lived were several restaurants and cafés that were all open for possible plot convenience.

It wasn't long before Jisung and Minho found a comfortable enough cafe to dine in. With his hood up to mask his expression as much as possible and his heart filled to the brim with several questions about what Minho'd wanted to ask him, Jisung found a table off at the corner while the older ordered for the both of them. Jisung hated having Minho paying for him since he didn't like the feeling of owing someone and being a liability of some sort to them, but the taller had assured him countless times during their stay that he'd regarded him as nothing of the sort. In fact he'd seemed really enthused to pay for both their orders, and who was Jisung to turn down those smiling pair of eyes and amiable grin?

As Jisung slowly dug into his breakfast -- a classic plate of bacon and eggs -- something quite close to sparks lit up in his chest at the distinct feeling of the older watching him. Out of habit, he slightly ducked his head. 

"It was Hyunjin that did this, didn't he?" Minho wondered out loud. 

Jisung suddenly didn't feel much like eating, but nodded. "Yes."

"...Can I ask why?"

At this Jisung braved a glance over at Minho's direction, taking notice of the inscrutable expression laced in the older's eyes. For some reason, Jisung felt the older was trying his hardest to remain calm, but the downturned lips and hard stare gave his turmoil away. The emotion wasn't directed at Jisung though.

Jisung scratched his neck, suddenly feeling _too_ hot in his hoodie. The weather had been almost perfect; not too hot nor too cold, but at that second the blond felt minutes away from turning into a human-sized puddle. 

"There'd been someone leaving letters and gifts and stuff at my locker recently, but their identity had been kept secret. But yesterday...the person who wrote the letters said they wanted to meet me to reveal themselves. _But_..." Jisung's voice lowered, breaking off at the end. The previous anger he'd felt towards Hyunjin became rekindled as memories of yesterday's fight replayed in his mind. The whole ordeal had left a bitter taste in his mouth.

  
A little engrossed in his memories of Hwang Hyunjin, Jisung almost missed the way Minho's left fist slowly closed over the table, and a strange feeling settled in the pits of his stomach. At that moment he felt he needed to change the subject before he did anything else.

So, he leaned over the table and playfully poked the metal straw of Minho's milkshake, purposefully trying to ignore the way the silver haired boy's eyes chased his every movement. The way Minho stared at him made him lightheaded.

"You really like milkshakes, huh?" Jisung started, smiling a bit. Minho returned this with an even _brighter_ version of his own.

"Well, yeah," Minho chuckled.

"I like them too. But I love smoothies more."

"Oh really?" Minho asked, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "Why though?"

"A _lot_ more flavour," Jisung responded lightly, waving his hand as if he wasn't even _considering_ arguing with the other about the subject. The challenging look on Minho's face though, spoke otherwise.

"Well maybe you should reconsider this one," the older spoke. "This one has a higher chance of tasting better than the other milkshakes you've tasted."

Jisung laughed, his nose scrunching up in the slightest. Minho's smile expanded at the view. "And why is that?"

With his dark eyes trained into Jisung's, lips quirking up at the sides and his words almost like a _purr_ , he stated, "'Cause _I've_ already tasted it." A moment later he took a painstalkingly slow sip of his milkshake, grinning impishly at the younger afterwards.

Jisung felt like he was gonna combust. He felt like burying himself alive. Why was Minho staring at him while sipping his milkshake like _that_? And was the guy even aware of what he was _doing_? Did this constitute as _flirting_? _What_?

Jisung's hands shook as he pushed his almost empty serving away, his heartbeat pounding like an echo in his ears. His whole face felt unbearably hot, the blood under his cheeks _boiling_. Holy shit.

Unfortunately, in his haste to get his mind off of whatever it was that Minho'd been doing, he accidently pushed the table a little _too_ hard, causing his drink to spill over entirely. Luckily, the drink was already half-done, but the mess going on in Jisung's head didn't allow him to process this fact. To him, this occurrence might has well be World War Three.

He quickly sprinted to his feet. "Oh my god -- I'm so sorry -- "

Minho had stood up as well, but he didn't look _nearly_ as panicked as Jisung did. "Jisung, it's -- it's okay. I'll call up the staff responsible for cleaning. Stop freaking out." His hand found Jisung's shoulder, his eyes shooting a look of encouragement Jisung's way, but the younger was too distraught to answer him.

 _Of course_ , Jisung couldn't go about his day without making a total fool of himself, couldn't he?

~🍓~

It didn't seem like Jisung would get over that embarrassing incident that'd taken place in that café earlier that morning anytime soon, but _somehow_ Minho had managed to distract him from all of it. 

After leaving the café, the two boys strolled around the area, ice cream cones in hand due to the younger's timidly made request for then -- not that Minho had any problems with that. He seemed to be a fan of all things dairy, Jisung realized.

Their walk through town wasn't boring, either. Minho made for an easygoing and interesting conversationalist, and his witty character made Jisung laugh and giggle often times than not. His _face_ was also nice to _look_ at -- not that Jisung would ever outwardly admit to that.

  
It was when they arrived at an almost secluded playground that Jisung suddenly remembered why he and Minho had even gone out together in the first place.

Sat on one of the swings, Jisung lightly oscillated himself and gazed at the clear blue sky, his mind full. He didn't know how to go about his questions without embarrassing himself.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Minho asked, the kind yet curious undertone in his voice causing Jisung to blush yet again.

"Just, well...You said you, uh, wanted to talk to me about something..." Jisung replied. "I uh, I wanted to uhm... _know_."

"Oh. Yeah." Minho cleared his throat, adjusting the beanie on his head even when it didn't need any fixing. " _That_."

"Yeah, that."

"Uhm, okay."

"Okay?"

Minho rubbed his hands together. "I -- This Saturday. I wanted to take you out with me -- to hang out. I want us to hang out on Saturday."

Jisung's eyes widened. "A-Are you talking about the -- the _dance_?"

Minho coughed, and Jisung swore his ears turned a vivid pink. " _No_. That's not it."

"Then where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise?" Minho bit his lip. "I mean, I _want_ it to be. I just wanna hang out with you on Saturday, but not to go to the dance. Not at all."

"I have detention that day. _With Hyunjin._ " Jisung's tongue felt like lead the second he mentioned that guy's name.

Minho's eyes were on him again, which made it exponentially harder for Jisung to breathe like a normal person.

"Later that Saturday, then," Minho replied, gently punching the younger's bicep. It startled Jisung, but he laughed it off, practically avoiding the taller's eyes.

_Gosh, why was this so awkward? And so gay??_

Minho's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

 _Oh fuck_. "What?" Jisung blinked, his mind going into overdrive.

"Did you say something just now?"

"N-No I didn't."

"But, I _swear_ you did," Minho pressed. "You whispered something, I was sure."

"Uh, I uh -- " Jisung's eyes darted somewhere else, as if that would be enough to trigger some sort of explanation that would get Minho off his back, and that was when he spotted something... _slight_. Something barely visible that irked the curiosity Jisung had always held inside of him.

A silence passed.

"...Jisung?" Minho asked, but the younger didn't reply right away. His gaze was focused on the exposed part of Minho's neck, specifically on the small gash of sorts colouring its surface. It looked scabbed over, the shade a healing purple that signified the wound had been made not too long ago.

It looked like a cut, somewhat like something had... _scratched_ over it.

By now, Minho'd noticed Jisung's staring, and the blond watched as he pulled up his turtleneck without a word.

"You got hurt," Jisung concluded, meeting Minho's eyes.

"Yeah..." Minho laughed, though all the humour had left his eyes. "I did."

"How'd you get it? Get in a fight with someone?" Jisung joked to try and lighten the situation.

At this, Minho laughed, brown eyes crinkling as he stared at the passers-by making their way downtown. "...Maybe."

His words were vague. Jisung wanted to question him further but he didn't want to ruin the comfortable atmosphere they had going on. He didn't want to annoy Minho.

"It's hideous, right?" The other boy asked, but when Jisung stared at him he'd kept his gaze forwards. "I won't be mad if you think so..."

Jisung slowly shook his head. "Nah," he replied, honesty coating his words, "it doesn't look bad. At least, not as bad as it _should_ _look_. Maybe because it's on _your_ neck -- Not to be weird or anything."

Truthfully, Jisung wanted to reach out and touch the older's neck, wanted to see it up close and figure out what had caused it, and if it was causing Minho any kind of pain. If it did, Jisung wanted it to subside, as he didn't like the thought of Minho being in pain. No, that didn't sit well with him at all.

Minho smiled. "Ah, thanks, I guess."

"No problem, man."

A pause, and then both boys chuckled to themselves, drowning in the tranquility of their surroundings, and each other.

If Jisung had never caught sight of that wound on Minho's neck, then maybe he would've been content with how today had eventually turned out.

~🍓~

  
Jisung and Minho had spent much more time in town than Jisung'd anticipated, but he hadn't minded it in the slightest.

By the time he'd arrived back at his house, the sun had already begun to set and make way for the moon, but the heat residing inside him was more than enough to combat the breezy evening air.

With his thoughts askew and his heartbeat erratic, he greeted his family and informed them of his whereabouts, but it was after he'd stepped inside his room he realized he'd forgotten all about Changbin's plans about meeting up with him after school today.

" _Shit. Hope he isn't mad or anything,_ " Jisung muttered to himself. He plugged his phone and switched it on, not at all surprised by the plethora of text messages his best friend had left him earlier this afternoon.

 **emobin** 💣: i came to your house only to discover you werent there, and your parents dont know where you are either  
 _sent 3:56 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: aNyways, i camped out in ur livngroom and ate some of ur moms delicious cooking n then i realized i was bored and left  
 _sent 3:56 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: i mean, ur prb with minho nyways  
sent 3:57 pm

 **emobin** 💣: holy shit  
 _sent 3:57 pm_

 **emobin💣** : wait  
 _sent 3:57 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: waiiiiitttttttt  
 _sent 3:57 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: felix just sent me a text  
 _sent 3:58 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: said he wants to hang out at some coffee shop or whtever  
 _sent 3:58 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: holy shit. what do i do??  
 _sent 3:58 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: if i die becus of his gorgeous ass i'm gonna sue u because you arent answering your txt msgs  
 _sent 3:58 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: ojay i dona know whay happned but im in his house rn and w're playbg vido games and i cant txt proprrly becaue i dont wannq losees  
 _sent 4:49 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: we're watching a movie now and its not that interesting but we're. sO. cLoSe and i never noticed until nOW AND IM FREAKING OUT OKAY BUT WHATEVER. ENJOY UR DATE WITH MINHOE biTCH  
 _sent 5:12 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: oh shit he fell asleep on meeeee  
 _sent 5:12 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: aaaaAAAAAAAHHHH  
 _sent 5:12 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: ah shite i think i'm gonna fall asleep as well. this is what happens when i drink too much coffee  
 _sent 5:13 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: felix likes coffee btw. the strong kind. dont know why i'm telling you this though but ok  
 _sent 5:13 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: and fuck i think i slept longer than necessary and i inconvenienced felix but he was being chill about it and even drove me home. did i already mention that he can drive?? nEways he didn't look like he wanted to kill me so thats chill ig  
 _sent 5:32 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: but like, you know how i recently bought this new cologne or whatever. u know the one that smells really nice and whatnot. anyway, i think during the time i spent asleep, i think...felix...sNIFFed me???  
 _sent 5:32 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: wow that sounds so crazy, since i may have imagined it. but if he hAD sniffed me then i'm flattered??? i guess?? or maybe thats creepy. IDK.  
 _sent 5:33 pm_

 **emobin** 💣: this is so confusing. anyways, call me when you're available. thx  
 _sent 6:01 pm_

Jisung, for the sake of his sanity, opted to just talk to his friend about it at school tomorrow.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	15. 14. cold stare.

~🍓~

  
Jisung didn't get much sleep when that night had began. But it wasn't something to worry about. Rather, it was something he didn't mind all that much. Bacause, as if seeming to sense the younger boy's unrest all the way from his house, Minho'd texted him something a couple minutes after midnight.

 **min** 😇: can't sleep?

 **jisung** : you read my mind rn huh

 **min** 😇: nah. i just had a feeling haha.

 **jisung** : yeah, i cant. but i'll try to, even tho i feel restless.

 **min** 😇: try and think of something that calms you.

Jisung froze upon reading Minho's latest message. Then, something in him decided to be mischievous for a bit, seeing as he was now in a rather good mood due to the older's act of texting him.

 **jisung** : what? you?

 **min** 😇: me? ok, i have no problems with that.

 **jisung** : okay, but like, no homo, bro.

Of course, around this time period Jisung was still in a lighthearted and jovial state of mind, but it was quickly wiped away when he realized what his text could've meant to Minho.

 **min** 😇: what do you mean by that?

 **jisung** : uh. i was just kidding. i mean, we're friends, right? we aren't like lovers or anything.

 **min** 😇: ok.

Feeling a bit panicked by the older's curt response, Jisung proceeded to do the impossible.

 **jisung** : are you gay?

 **jisung** : i mean, not that i have a problem with that or anything! like my best friend changbin probably eats rainbows for breakfast considering he's pretty homosexual and...yeah.

A pause, one that consisted of Jisung holding in his breath longer than necessary, anticipating a response he wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

 **min** 😇: no, i'm not.

Jisung suddenly remembered to breathe, and when he had he took noticed of the imaginary dumbbell that had dug itself into his chest, weighing him down. It was a foreign, unconfortable feeling, and therefore he hated it.

 **jisung** : min, are you still there?

Minho's took longer to reply than usual, which sent Jisung's anxiety off the rails.

But at last, he finally did respond.

 **min** 😇: yeah, of course i am.

 **min** 😇:

  
**min** 😇: thats a recent pic of me, taken by the skillful yet unwilling lee felix.

 **min** 😇: and you see what's behind me?

Heartbeat racing, Jisung quickly typed out his reply.

 **jisung** : what?

 **min** 😇: it's a clock. and the clock's saying, 'have a good night's sleep, jisungie! i believe in you!!'.

 **min** 😇: and i believe in you as well.

 **jisung** : lol i think the clock's only making me more anxious, but i'll try and get through the rest of the night. thank you.

 **min** 😇: you're welcome :D.

 **min** 😇:

  
**jisung** : oh my god i almost choked. what is this??? lmaoo

 **min** 😇: did you laugh?

 **jisung** : uh, yeah hahaha

 **min** 😇: good. then my work here is done.

 **min** 😇: but there's one last thing i want to ask.

 **jisung** : yeah?

 **min** 😇: send me a picture of you. it's only fair.

 **min** 😇: plus i'm curious. i rarely see you take pictures of yourself, but i figured that maybe if i asked nicely, then you'll possibly...send one to me??

 **min** 😇: no pressure 🔘👄🔘.

 **jisung** : thats like, the worst emoji to send rn. but okay, i guess...

Truth be told, Jisung was feeling a plethora of emotions by now, both good and bad. Good, when Minho'd cheered him up by sending a picture of himself with that ridiculous filter, and bad, like _right now_. How'd Minho guess he didn't really like taking selfies? Had he been _watching_ him more than he'd realized?

 **jisung** :

  
**min** 😇: *gasp* you're so cute.

 **min** 😇: *gasp again* i should keep you in my pocket!

 **jisung** : thats...a bit concerning. but thanks :)

 **min** 😇: you don't need to thank me. you're really cute. seriously 💜.

 **min** 😇: hey, if you're still having trouble sleeping i suggest to listen to some music. i'm even listening to something right now.

 **jisung** : oh. what are you listening to?

 **min** 😇: wedding dress by taeyang :). i'm in a pretty sentimental mood rn so i figured i should listen to some good old sentimental song. i like listening to music that reflects what i'm feeling at that moment.

 **jisung** : that's cool, and, i really like that song.

 **min** 😇: me too, even more so now that i know you like it as well 😄.

 **jisung** : you tease

 **min** 😇: you called?

 **jisung** : shhh. i'm gonna take up your suggestion, and hope to catch some decent sleep tonight.

 **jisung** : see you at school tomorrow minho :)

 **min** 😇: good night, sungieee.

 **jisung** : gnight minhooo

Jisung then went to his infinite playlist, smiling a bit to himself when he spotted _Wedding Dress_ by Taeyang. He plugged his headphones in and decided to listen to the familiar song for the time being.

~🍓~

  
" _Look_ , Jisung, you don't realize just _how much_ this bothers me," Changbin was explaining as the two boys made their way inside the school premises early the next morning. "Like, I kept thinking about it _all night_. All. Night. And you _know_ how I _hate_ thinking about stuff for a long period of time. Makes my brain hurt and shit."

Jisung only briefly nodded, half-listening to his best friend ramble on about that what'd happened between him and Felix yesterday afternoon. Or more specifically, what Felix had _done_. "Mhm."

"Are you even _listening_ to me?"

"Mhm." Jisung made a point to nod overexaggeratedly to try and convince Changbin that he _was_ listening to him, but he was pretty sure the shorter knew at that point that he was clearly zoning out.

Nevertheless, Changbin continued to talk. "Anyway, I kept on thinking about it even this morning, and it's even worse since I _don't_ know if I'd imagined everything or not. I mean, I don't think Felix could ever _do_ something like that."

Jisung opened his locker and faced his friend. "Well, maybe you should just... _talk_ to him about it. Ask him if he sniffed you or not. Simple."

If Changbin'd widened his eyes more than he was doing now, then they would've straight up popped out of their sockets. "What the hell? _No way, man_. That's such a weirdass thing to ask."

"Yeah," Jisung agreed, "it _is_ weird -- _really weird_ \-- but how else are you gonna find answers to your questions if you don't ask him?"

"But what if he didn't do it? Then I'd just look like a _perv_!" Changbin whisper-yelled.

"Aren't you one already for Felix?" Jisung asked cheekily. He laughed when Changbin smacked his elbow, looking _genuinely_ offended.

"What? I'll have you know that I -- _Oh hey Minho!_ Nice seeing you here!"

As soon as the black haired male had said this, Jisung spun around, trying his hardest not to let his clumsiness get the better of him with Minho now around. Noticing this, Changbin shot him a knowing smirk, one which Jisung wanted to slap off his face at that very moment.

"Oh, hi Changbin. Hey, Jisung." Minho greeted. He looked especially cheery today, clad in an oversized cream-coloured sweater and dark jeans that somehow ended up coordinating with what Jisung decided to wear today. This observation made this fuzzy kind of warmth erupt within him.

A little bit restless, Jisung's eyes narrowed in on Minho's neck, widening a bit when the wound on it was nowhere to be found. But, he decided not to think about it too much though. _He probably covered it up with makeup, or maybe it healed over_ , he'd concluded.

"How was your night?" Minho asked, and although he'd asked both males that question his gaze was mostly trained on Jisung's face.

"Dumb. Lame. Lackluster. Boring," Changbin listed. "Discovered this morning I had homework due for today that I'd forgotten to complete two days ago. 'M probably gonna ask Jiji for the answers at lunch though."

Minho laughed, eyes turning into happy slits while Jisung wanted to dig himself a life-sized hole. "Wait... _Jiji_?"

"That's the nickname I had for Jisung when we were kids. Cool, righ -- _Ow_!"

" _Shut up._ " Jisung exclaimed, before looking up at Minho. "Don't mind him. Just -- forget about whatever he just said. It's probably gibberish anyway."

" _Hey_ \-- "

A turn to the left was all it took to exchange glances with the boy who'd been majorly responsible for the troubles Jisung'd experienced recently. All of a sudden, his and Changbin's banter was forgotten, his friend's voice fading with the background noises as he and Hwang Hyunjin continued to stare at each other.

Hyunjin's face was expressionless, eyes blank as one hand gripped the strap of his school bag, the other staying idle at his side. A small white bandaid rested on the middle of his nose where Jisung had punched him. Jisung's fists curled as he tried to look away, mostly because he was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the way the taller male continued to _stare_ at him, and by now he was sure Changbin and Minho had noticed it as well.

Minho, especially.

Once the grey haired male had made eye-contact with Hyunjin, his entire demeanor had changed. In the place of the _friendly_ and _nice_ Minho was the Minho whose expression had _unwelcome_ written all over it. His gaze had become as cold as ice, _glowering_ , even, and even though his stares were directed at Hyunjin Jisung still felt a bit unnerved.

He snapped out of it though when the older male proceeded to casually _ruffle_ his locks with his warm hand, gently whispering to him about how he'd had something in his hair. This, in turn, made Jisung _freak out_ and look at Minho in shock.

Hyunjin's jaw clenched, and then he was gone.

Silence ensued, and then --

" _Whooosh_ , what the _heck_ just happened?" Changbin decided to ask, pretending to shiver. "Oh my _gawd_. The _tension_ \-- "

" _Shut up Changbin_."

~🍓~

The rest of the day went by as usual. And by usual Jisung meant having to sit through the boring classes and his best friend eyeing a certain Australian like he was a piece of meat -- but at least, nothing _horrible_ had happened thus far. Well, apart from what had taken place this morning. 

Jisung couldn't help but think about it during lunch. He couldn't help but replay Minho's inhospitable stare at Hyunjin, specifically at the way all his pleasantness seemed to have wiped off his face at the speed of light. It had been an alarming thing to witness.

The blond chewed on his lip. Of course, he couldn't forget about the feeling of Minho's hand running through his hair, and the thought alone made his stomach do flips. The weirdest thing was that the feeling wasn't one that was unwelcome. In fact, Jisung... _liked_ it. He'd liked it when the older boy had touched his hair like that. 

  
"Earth to Jisung? Sungie? ... _Jiji_?" Changbin remarked, guffawing when Jisung shot him a scowl. It totally didn't help that Changbin's mention of the dreaded nickname brought about a round of laughter from everyone seated at their table. Even Felix, donned in a black hoodie that covered the majority of his face like he was a Jedi or something, had on a small smile of his own.

" _Cut it out!_ " The blond boy hissed, pouting in the slightest bit.

"Yeah," Minho's voice caught Jisung off-guard. "You should probably cut it off now."

"But you'd been laughing before," Seungmin pointed out. At this, Changbin rapidly nodded.

"Yeah, I _was_ ," Minho started, taking a bite out of a piece of strawberry cake, "but I'm not anymore, am I? Plus, I'm excused."

Felix's eyebrows knitted, before speaking his first words since lunch had begun. "And why is that?"

"Because I'm cute. Right, Jisung?" Minho inquired, casting a grin the younger's way.

In response, Jisung decided to (charmingly) sputter out a series of sounds constituting as 'oh', 'uhm', 'uhh', before finally clearing his throat and nibbling shyly on his food.

"Uhh, y-yes? I mean, yeah. You're... cute."

"There is no hetero explanation for this," Changbin whispered -- rather loudly, might I add -- to Seungmin, to which Jisung responded to by calmly, _lovingly,_ kicking him right in the shin.

The howl of pain that left his best friend afterwards was strangely satisfying.

~🍓~

Classes ended, and Jisung found himself walking with Minho to his house after the bus had dropped them off since Changbin'd decided to ditch him for Felix because ' _Felix wants to see my new video game console_ '.

But, it wasn't like Jisung was complaining though. After all, he got to spend more time with Minho, and the latter always brightened his mood up.

When they'd arrived at Minho's house, they hung out for a bit, attempting to heat up some leftover pizza but then failing at it and then deciding to just eat it like that. Afterwards, they viewed a few movies, but then Jisung realized with disappointment that he had to get home soon and complete his unfinished homework and assignments. With this, he wished the older male goodbye, politely refuting the older's request to walk him home, before finally setting out for his house.

The walk was unproblematic for the most part, the calm atmosphere clearing Jisung's thoughts. He hummed a song, his hands in his pockets as he strolled along the empty sidewalk.

  
But then, he stopped. Dread, cool and gradual, slithered in and gripped onto his heart, and his eyes darted back and forth and around the neighbourhood, immediately feeling uneasy. Goosebumps lathered his arms, chills racing up his spine. His breathing became uneven.

 _What gives?_ He thought, speeding up. He felt like something was watching him, even when there wasn't anyone around at that moment. But, that revelation did no good for his hyperactive imagination.

The more he walked, the more he felt that unease, and it expanded, getting even worse since he couldn't, for the _life_ of him, figure out who was responsible for all those stares.

The second he got to his house, he rushed in, slamming his door shut and locking it. Silence greeted him, but did nothing to block out all the thoughts swirling inside his head.

" _Okay, I think I need to just take a shower and relax,_ " Jisung told himself. " _That should do it_."

After this, he was going to try and talk to either Changbin or Minho, _maybe even both_ , and maybe they could rid him of his distress.

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	16. 15. impromptu meal.

~🍓~

  
"Rise and shine, you failure."

The roughly spoken words registered in Hyunjin's head as soon as the coldness around him did, and slowly he cracked his eyes open, the pupils dilating to make out the shapes in the darkness.

Goosebumps decorated his arms, and he gritted his teeth, jaw tensing. Hyunjin'd always hated the cold.

"Taking your time as always, huh?" The bitter yet amused voice continued. "What'll happen if one day I don't show up in the morning anymore and wake you up for school? Your lazy ass would probably sleep through the whole day."

Hyunjin's jaw remained in that same position, firm and set, but now it was for another reason entirely. His fists curled at his sides. " _Please_ , Joonhyuk, just leave."

Joonhyuk stood there, dark eyes staring at his younger brother in the dark. "Mm. Not even a word of thanks, huh. Ungrateful brat."

Hyunjin ignored him. Of course, he almost always did. He didn't have the best relationship out there with his parents and his brother, with them not being the most affectionate people out there as well as their shady dealings with certain colleagues outside the house. They were rarely ever home and Hyunjin had gotten used to it by now. As long as they somehow always found a way to pay the bills, Hyunjin had learnt to keep his questions and curiosity to himself. Keeping his mouth shut was the safest thing he could do.

Hyunjin got off the bed and cringed a bit when the soles of his feet touched the freezing floor. His brother's eyes were on him the whole time. A shiver ran down his spine, but Hyunjin didn't know if it had been the cold or his brother's watchful gaze that caused it.

" _Wah_ ," the older male tsked, stepping a bit closer to Hyunjin. Hyunjin immediately stiffened up. "You're getting a bit tall. Certainly taller than I remember."

"...You wouldn't know. You, mom and dad are hardly ever home anyway," Hyunjin mumbled without thinking much about it, his words clearly not meant for his brother to hear. His eyes widened in alarm when Joonhyuk's stance grew more defensive.

"Everything your parents and I do, we do...for _us_ ," Joonhyuk explained, placing a hard hand on Hyunjin's shoulder. "You don't _need_ to understand, and you won't, anyway, but I need you to know that all we're doing, is in our best interest, okay?" The two brothers stared at each other, Hyunjin's dark eyes brimming with curiosity whilst Joonhyuk's were guarded.

"...And..." Hyunjin gulped, staring at the ground, "why can't I know about it?" 

"Because I don't want you getting involved," was Joonhyuk's simple answer. His lips curled into a smirk. "Come on, you need to get ready for school."

~🍓~

Hyunjin closed his eyes, shaky palms rubbing his face as warm water rolled down his body, a slight steam enveloping him. He sighed, wanting to stay under the shower head a bit longer, but he'd already spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom trying to rid his mind of the hurricane of thoughts storming his head by scrubbing at himself with the sponge harder than necessary. But, even with this, he still couldn't barricade those thoughts.

Even without the whole thing with his family's private work, his plate was already full with several issues that bothered him to no end. On the forefront of it all was the whole incident, or _incidents_ , surrounding a certain blond haired male.

Hyunjin, as long as he could remember, had been nothing but terrible at expressing his feelings, and instead masking his pain with anger and his tears with bruised fists. Even his popularity couldn't shield him from the fact that, at heart of it all, he was just a boy who had a bit of a temper and dealt with the despair and hurt he usually felt by constantly lashing out.

  
But, he wasn't always like that.

Hyunjin opened his eyes and turned off the faucet, staring down at his feet and watching as the remainder of the water swam down the drain. Jisung's wide smile appeared in his head, but that fragile, pure sight was soon tainted like broken glass when images of the shorter boy's displeased and furious expressions were all Hyunjin could see.

 _Don't get mad at me. You caused this_.

Hyunjin closed his eyes, and Jisung's face appeared again. The boy had certainly gotten nicer and milder throughout the years, growing more and more into his features and becoming this... _person_ that enamoured Hyunjin in every single way. Jisung was _beautiful_ , and the fact that Hyunjin still thought so after so many years made him want to rip his heart out. At times, the feelings he had overwhelmed him and made him unsteady on his feet, caging him until he could no longer do anything to combat them. They made him feel sick.

Nearly everyday, when the episodes of self-hate and anxiety finally let him be, he'd lie down on his bed and wonder just what it'd be like to have Jisung lying next to him, to lovingly run his fingers through the younger's hair, entwine their hands and kiss his soft lips. Whenever Hyunjin'd spot the shorter walking with his friends at school he'd wonder what it'd feel like to have the younger boy look at him with _love_ and affection instead of anger and irritation. He knew he had a long way to go before he and Jisung could ever be on good terms, but that didn't stop him from imagining what it'd be like if he and Jisung had grown to be lovers instead of enemies.

"JinJin, are you gonna step out of the bathroom anytime soon or nah," his brother called out behind the bathroom door, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Hyunjin inhaled a deep breath, stepping out of the shower. He wrung a small towel through his black hair, his brows knitting in frustration when the memory of Jisung giggling at some joke Changbin'd cracked during lunch period yesterday invaded his head. He remembered sneaking a peek at the blond during that time, ears burning up at the adorable sight. He'd only managed to not get caught staring by avoiding Lee Felix's observant eyes at the nick of time.

"Don't...call me that," Hyunjin breathed, drying himself more impatiently now. He needed to get out of that bathroom before his thoughts about the younger consumed him. He didn't need that this morning.

When he was finally done, he pushed past his brother and entered his room, ready to get started on his day.

~🍓~

The weather was on the cooler side, the morning air so damp and chill-inducing that Hyunjin made sure he was bundled up enough in his warmest sweater and coat, but even with _that_ he still felt restless and agitated. There was still that bitterness that hung in the atmosphere, that negativity that pricked at his brain and poisoned his mind, erasing his amile. He was unsettled and unhappy, and he knew the main reason why.

Breakfast was quiet, and lonesome, so much so that Hyunjin almost wanted to laugh at how pathetic his mornings usually went. His parents weren't home (of course), and his brother was already getting ready to leave the house, deciding on skipping breakfast as well.

"Hope you have a good day at school today," Joonhyuk wished his brother, putting on his coat. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of Hyunjin seated at the corner of the dining table, wordlessly pushing around his plate of fried eggs with a fork. "Are you sick?"

"No."

"Good. 'Cause I don't want you wasting the food, okay?"

"I won't..."

Joonhyuk watched Hyunjin for a while, clearly wanting to say something or try and figure out why he looked so down and fatigued, but he held his tongue. He always did. He wasn't the touchy, outwardly caring type. Hyunjin knew this.

  
"I'll see you later, JinJin."

Hyunjin didn't bother lashing out at his brother for calling him that annoying nickname, instead he just nodded. "Sure."

The front door shut, and Hyunjin exhaled, feeling as if the walls were closing in. It was still a bit dark out, so he gingerly finished his meal and brought the plate to the kitchen.

Taking a sip of water, he adjusted the cellphone in his hand, thumb stroking over the area where a certain number was kept. A number he'd never dare dial. _Han_ _Jisung's number_.

It took a careless act on Changbin's part for Hyunjin obtain that crucial information about Jisung. The short boy had headed out of the library that time to use the washroom, and his phone happened to be on during that period of time.

The temptation to call that number and see what happened next was never far from Hyunjin's mind, but he just _couldn't_ do it. He was a coward, and often times he felt like he was infringing further on Jisung's privacy by having his number without his permission.

With a groan, Hyunjin turned off his phone and placed it on the table. Tears of disappointment and aggravation burned behind his eyes, but Hyunjin pushed them back. Crying was no use. Especially not over someone who never cared about you, even from the start.

~🍓~

During Biology Hyunjin'd excused himself from class because he needed to use the toilet. At least, that was _what_ he wanted the teacher to believe. Instead, as soon as he stepped out of the door, he headed the opposite direction and down the stairs, not intending on stopping anytime soon.

The cafeteria was a building located not too far off from the main wing of the school, and to get inside there were two entryways. Hyunjin was going to use the less used one that most staff entered through.

It was around 10AM now, the time most cooking staff started working in the kitchen.

One of the few lunch-ladies at the front at the time Hyunjin stepped in looked puzzled at seeing the boy's appearance.

"...Hwang Hyunjin?"

"Uhm, good day, Ma'am," Hyunjin politely bowed, surprising the lady. She, like most of the school, was no stranger to the issues with temperament Hyunjin possessed.

"Good day, Hyunjin. How can I help you?" The lunch lady, Sara, asked with a small smile.

"Are you and the other staff preparing a special order today?" Hyunjin questioned.

"Hmm, not really, no," Sara replied. "We're gonna proceed with the usual. What? Do you have a special request?"

"...Well," Hyunjin stepped closer to the woman, "I uh, wanted to ask for a favour."

The image of Jisung, young and starry-eyed, was painted vividly in his mind. He could remember that day clearly, when the boy had been over-the-moon excited about ordering cheesecake at the local bakery kids like them used to visit almost everyday back then.

  
_"This cheesecake is so good!"_

_"Can I have some?"_

_"NO, Changbin. Go get yours!"_

_"But I forgot to bring money! Please, Jiji, can I have a bite? Please???"_

_"Binnie, I swear -- "_

_"Hey, is it just me or is Hwang Hyunjin staring at us?"_

_"He ALWAYS stares at us. He's weird, just ignore him."_

_"Okay, whatever. But I still want some cheesecake."_

_"Go away Changbin._ "

"Hyunjin?" Sara's kind voice brought the dark haired male back to the present. "Are you okay?"

"I -- I'm okay. Uhm -- can I make a special request for cheesecake? It's... it's for one person. This student, Han... _Jisung_."

Sara looked surprised, but nodded eitherway. "Han Jisung. Got it."

"And don't tell him it was me. Please. I'll uh, I'll pay for the order and stuff. And," Hyunjin gulped, "if you have blueberries available as well, please add them. I think... I think he loves them with cheesecake."

"Okay, I will. Uhm, I know it's not my business, but why are you making this order for Jisung?" Sara asked, genuine curiosity etched in her expression.

"It's okay," Hyunjin sighed, staring at his hands. "I...I want to get rid of my guilt. And to say sorry. One step at a time."

~🍓~

Watching Jisung accept that cheesecake with confusion and pleasant surprise so deep embedded on his face did something to Hyunjin's heart. But, he didn't show it though. Of course, he didn't. He tried his best not to stare in the blond's general direction for the majority of lunch even though his body itched so badly to do so, and instead focused his attention on his friends whilst swallowing down his emotional pain with food. Despite this though, he couldn't ignore the fact that the way Jisung acted around Minho and the rest of his friends was the way Hyunjin wanted Jisung to act around _him_.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't want Jisung to look at him the same way he looked at Minho.

  
The day continued, and as soon as classes were done, Hyunjin sped out of the classroom and stepped into the hallway, intent on getting home as soon as he could.

Only to see Jisung in the distance, the boy looking through his locker for something. But, as Hyunjin's 'luck' would have it, the blond looked up then, and their eyes met.

All of a sudden, Hyunjin felt breathless, and something deep and nauseating and warm flooded his system and filled his lungs. His heart started to race, but, for some reason, at that moment, he stood still, and waited for what Jisung would do next.

Jisung shut the locker, his eyes inscrutable, and, to Hyunjin's shock, started to walk in his direction.

Hyunjin's fists curled, anticipation coursing through him. His heart wildly beat within the confines of his ribcage.

Jisung then stopped, maintaining a respectable distance from him. Their eyes met once more, Jisung's dark -- _pretty_ \-- round ones practically unreadable.

"Look, don't...stare at me, Hyunjin. And stop...following me around," Jisung decided to speak then. "We already hate each other, and I bet you're just doing this to spite me."

_"Are you deaf? Stay away from me! Don't -- don't give me anything. I don't want it! I don't want it, Hwang Hyunjin! Go away, or I'm telling the teacher on you!"_

Hyunjin's throat closed up, lungs burning. He took a step back, not even bothering to reply to Jisung's words, and, unable to witness the stunned look on Jisung's face, marched off in the opposite direction.

_Why do you always end up hurting me even when I just want you to love me back?_

Hyunjin'd probably get over this. He knew he would. But, it'd take some time to do so. Of course.

~🍓~

**a/n** : bonus chapter all about hyunjin! thoughts?


	17. 16. words unspoken.

~🍓~

  
Jisung was confused, shocked, and not to mention, a bit hungry. And he knew himself enough to conclude that those three sensations together was _not_ a good combo. So, as soon as he got home, he grabbed himself a half-full tub of strawberry ice cream from the freezer but even then he couldn't bring himself to dig into it as his thoughts were just _too_ numerous.

He was excited for Saturday, which happened to be tomorrow. Of course he was. After all, he and Minho were going to hang out for the latter half that day instead of attending that washed-up Valentine's Day dance, and he definitely had no problems with that. _But_ , there was a part of him that was a bit anxious about what would happen tomorrow morning, which he would just so happen to be spending with Hwang Hyunjin in detention.

Hyunjin made him nervous, and that was a fact. And it was weird, because whenever he saw the latter the stares they shared were basically _drowning_ in loathing and irritation, but lately Jisung just felt wary whenever he and the taller had to communicate in any sort of way. After their unplanned fight, he'd avoided Hyunjin's stares, not wanting to trigger the older boy in some way and end up somehow getting _himself_ hurt.

Jisung closed his eyes, remembering that exact look on Hyunjin's face the moment he'd confronted him after school had ended. Ever since they fought, Hyunjin had been acting _off_ , like he hid in his body a ticking time bomb that would just go off at any second. Jisung would be lying if he said he hadn't caught the older staring at him often times than not, and it reminded him _too_ much of the buried past that it started getting immensely uncomfortable.

And the way Hyunjin's face had contorted into this... _broken_ image of himself when Jisung told him to stop following him around had haunted the blond's mind all through the time he'd spent walking home with Minho. Hyunjin's uncharacteristic behaviour made that ever so bitter feeling of guilt erupt in his gut, and Jisung didn't like it at all. Not one bit.

 _Aish, Jisung. Why the hell are you getting so worked up over this?? Stop it,_ Jisung commanded himslf, staring at his slowly melting, sad ice cream. Hyunjin's dejected face squeezed itself into Jisung's mind yet again. _Jisung, stop it_.

_Stop. It. Right. Now._

It was at that moment his mind chose to replay that dreaded memory of when Hyunjin'd pushed him onto that locker, fists firmly clamped around his shirt collar and face mirroring Jisung's furious one. And it was during that period, just for a split second, that Hyunjin's eyes had stared downward, seeming as if they'd spared a glance at Jisung's _lips_.

 _Okay, mind. It's now official that you've gone CRAZY_ , Jisung berated himself. Oh fuck, he needed to get his mind off Hwang Hyunjin or he was probably going to end up throwing himself out of a window. He needed a distraction, and _fast_.

A song by _BlockB_ decided to play out from his phone in his pocket at that second, alerting him that his best friend was now calling him. Jisung took out the device and pressed accept without even thinking twice about it.

" _Yo, Ji_."

"What do you want, Changbin?" Jisung asked, pretending to sound exasperated even though he was thanking all the heavens and gods that the shorter had decided to call him during that time.

"Are you okay? Because you sounded a little bit mad there," Changbin chose to question.

 _I'm bothered_.

"No," Jisung lied. "I'm not mad." He closed the tub of ice cream and pushed it away, lying on his springy bed and listening in with no emotion as the clatter of his sister kicking off her boots at the doorway reverberated through the hall. He then stared at his feet, rolling them around to feel a bit more relaxed.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Now, grace me with your wise words, oh dear Changbin. Anything new in your rainbow-filled world? I'm in the mood for some good ol' gossip." Jisung's words were lathered and dripping with sarcasm and iced with mild desperation.

Changbin laughed on the other line. "Y'know, somehow I just _sensed_ you were worrying your little head about something, and it turns out I was right, because, am I not the greatest best friend ever or _what_?"

"Changbin, shut up and talk."

"How the fuck is that even possible."

"I just -- I don't _know_ , okay?" The seventeen-year-old scratched his head, glaring meteor-sized holes into the ceiling of his bedroom. He wondered what Minho was doing right now. "Just...fill me in with your status with Felix or something. I just need you to speak."

Changbin became silent, which puzzled Jisung because he _knew_ his friend wasn't one to stay quiet for long.

He raised an eyebrow. "Bin? Are you okay?"

"Ji, don't get mad at me, but I _may or may not_ have purchased two tickets to the dance yet without you knowing," Changbin said all in one breath.

" _Changbin_!"

"I'm sorry okay? But I _totally_ had a valid reason for it! _Obviously_ , it was a _very_ irrational move on my part to buy those tickets because I know you _detest_ these kind of events but I just couldn't help myself, and a boy can _dream_ , am I right? I knew you _wouldn't_ want to go eitherway even if I forced you and ultimately that extra ticket would've gone to waste but guess who decided to show up to poetry club this afternoon? Felix, of course! And he _just so happened_ to see those tickets and ended up asking me about it and I end up spilling my guts to him and saying 'no one in particular' and guess what? He ended up suggesting that _he_ could accompany _me_ to the dance and I. Swear. To. God. My. Heart. Freaking. Stopped and I still can't believe it now and I -- "

"Changbin," Jisung interrupted, "please just...take a deep breath." Even _he_ felt suffocated just by listening to his best friend's run-on sentences and bubbly excitement through the phone.

"Trust me, I'm _trying_ to."

"And, Changbin?"

"Yeah?"

Jisung inhaled, and then, " _Holy shit, dude_. Did you just indirectly ask Lee Felix out?"

"Holy shit. I think I did."

"Woah, I didn't think this day would ever come."

"I know you probably meant that in a bad way but I'm too happy right now to get mad. But also," Changbin cleared his throat, "you're okay with this...right?"

"What? You mean you going to the dance with Felix?" Jisung smiled.

"Uhm, yeah... _That_."

" _Of course_ I am, Bin. I know how much you like Felix so I'm glad you guys are going together," Jisung remarked. "But like, is he gonna show up to your house in a tuxedo or nah?"

There was an audible _gasp_ from the other line. "It's a semi-formal event, so I don't think so. But -- _oh my god_ \-- what if he _does_? I'm probably gonna die."

"For _his_ sake, I sure hope you don't."

" _Hey!_ "

Jisung laughed, airy and giggly, because amidst his friend's excessive ranting about his crush, he could sense _genuine happiness_ behind his words, and that made _him_ happy as well.

"If you two don't kiss, I'm gonna sue," Jisung added.

"But what if he doesn't like me like that?"

"I mean, sometimes you can be a bit _too_ much, a tad bit _too_ talkative, and just a pinch _too_ annoying -- "

"Jisung."

"But underneath it all, I know you're an awesome guy, Changbin. I'm lucky to have you as my best friend and to have known you all these years. And even though this conversation is getting progressively awkward because we're talking on the phone and not face to face," Jisung inhaled a shaky breath, "I still want you to know that I love your company, and that I can't imagine my life without you in it. I love you, man."

" _Jisung_... _aww, that's so sweet_ ," Changbin sighed. "I love you too, Jiji."

" _Aaannd_ now this moment is ruined."

Changbin's loud laugh erupted through the phone, and Jisung couldn't help but giggle along as well.

"Also," Changbin began as soon as the laughter died down, "Felix asked for your phone number so I gave it to him."

" _Wait, what_?"

" _I gotta go Jiji, bye bye._ "

"Changbin -- "

The line was now silent, but that moment of quiet didn't last long.

 **unknown** : hey

 **unknown** : this is jisung, right?

Jisung swallowed hard. Of course, Lee Felix was actually a pretty cool guy, but that didn't stop _literal_ chills from racing down Jisung's back whenever they interacted.

 **jisung** : yep. thats me lol

 **felix** : cool. i just realized today we've never gotten each other's numbers, so i asked changbin for it

 **felix** : also,, i hope you don't mind

 **jisung** : mind what

 **felix** : me and changbin going to the dance together. i mean, you two are pretty close

 **jisung** : what? no! i mean, we aRe close but i don't mind at all. totally

 **jisung** : i hope you guys have fun!

 **felix** : thanks. hope you have fun with minho as well.

 **jisung** : what?

 **felix** : he told me you guys are hanging out tomorrow??

 **jisung** : ohhh, right

 **jisung** : and thanks

 **felix** : no problem. i'm glad minho has someone like you around to keep him company. he's smiling a lot now, compared to before

Jisung's pulse quickened. Heat rushed into his cheeks.

 **jisung** : wait what do you mean  
 _seen_

 _Did he just leave me on 'seen'?_ Jisung thought. _I'm pretty sure he just did._

But, the blond didn't have it in him to be mad at how Felix had chosen to respond to his last text, especially not when he was currently worked up over what the Australian had told him about Minho. His message insinuated that the grey haired male _hadn't_ been his usual jovial self in the past, and that him being with Jisung had definitely changed that. But, it was hard to believe Minho could be anything _but_ friendly and chill, and so Felix's message worried Jisung more than anything else.

Jisung pulled open his contacts, feeling as if he wouldn't be able to relax or participate in any other activities if he at least didn't check in on Minho first. It was only around thirty minutes past six, so it wasn't _too_ late. And, even if him and Minho had spoken not that long ago, he still couldn't wait to hear the older's voice again.

As soon as he dialed Minho's number, he pressed the phone to his ears and waited.

And then Areum was suddenly by the doorway, hand on her hip and hair tied in a messy bun.

"Did you take that tub of strawberry ice cream?" She asked, voice accusatory.

Jisung, without saying anything, gave it to her, because he didn't want to disrupt his focus.

"It's all _melted_ now," she whined.

" _Then you can freeze it up again_ ," he hissed.

She rolled her eyes and left with the ice cream.

" _Freeze what up again?_ " Someone spoke through the phone, and Jisung jolted, almost dropping the device.

"Uh -- _nothing_. I was just taking to my sister. Nothing much," Jisung hurriedly explained, ears the shade of the inside of a watermelon. He closed the door and leant on it, shutting his eyes.

"Are you okay?" He spoke again. His voice was soft and he couldn't hide the worry he felt in them.

Minho chuckled. "...Yeah, I am. Why?"

"I dunno, uh -- " Jisung sputtered, "I just, I dunno, thought that _maybe_ you're feeling a little sad, _or lonely_ , right now."

For some mere seconds, nothing was said on the other line, and all the blond could hear was the anxious thumping of his own heartbeat.

But, finally Minho answered.

"If I was, what would you do to help me?"

"Uh, maybe talk to you? Or sing you a song? Or I don't know, make you laugh a lot especially when we hang out tomorrow, which I'm _excited_ for, by the way," Jisung rambled, a bad habit of his whenever he got nervous. And _boy_ did he get nervous a lot when it came to Minho. "I'm not sure, whichever one you like. I mean, I'm not _that_ great at cheering people up and I cringe a lot -- _like a lot_ \-- but I don't even know why I'm saying this or why I'm rambling so damn much, but..."

Minho laughed, the familiarly gentle and comforting sound causing a shy smile to spread across Jisung's face.

"Yeah, you _do_ ramble a lot," Minho began, "but I like it. I like it a lot."

"You do?"

"Yeah. And I won't mind listening in on another round of you rambling if it meant I got to see your face for one last time tonight."

Jisung suddenly felt out of breath. "W-We can video call, if you want."

"Yeah, that's a _good_ idea, but I wanna see you face to face," Minho countered, chuckling.

"You want me to...stay over at your house tonight," Jisung stated, his palms getting clammy.

" _Mhm_. If you could. I'll take you to school tomorrow morning so you can, y'know?"

Jisung quickly nodded. "Yeah, yeah, okay." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Are your parents home?"

"They'll be in a few hours." Minho replied. "So, do you wanna come over?"

Jisung nodded. "Yes. I'll head over."

"Thank you, Sungie."

Jisung was now blushing. _Hard_. "O-Of course, no problem Minho."

As soon as their phonecall was over, Jisung let out this insanely high-pitched squeal and set out to pick out the outfits would wear tonight and tomorrow. He couldn't deny that he was pretty much excited.

After grabbing everything he needed and placing it inside his bag, he walked out into the livingroom. Areum regarded him with a questioning brow raise.

"Are you heading out again?" She asked.

"Yeah. I won't be eating dinner here, and tell mom and dad when they come back that I'd be at Minho's tonight and tomorrow."

"Yeah, of course it's _that_ guy," Areum said, staring at the tv.

"Yeah, well, what about it?" Jisung questioned, rolling his eyes.

His sister raised her hands in surrender. " _Nothing_. I'm just saying, if I _didn't_ know better I'd think you had a crush on him or something."

Taken aback, Jisung didn't answer. He zipped up his jacket and left through the door, determined not to think _too_ much about his sister's statement tonight.

~🍓~

Jisung swore his face got twice more pink as soon as Minho opened the door for him, dressed in these pastel blue pyjamas with cartoon clouds that made him look all the more cute.

"Hey, Jisung!" Minho exclaimed upon seeing his face. "Glad you could make it."

"I'm glad I could make it as well," Jisung said, only stuttering a little. "And I really dig what you're wearing. The blue beanie also adds a nice touch."

  
Minho's smile, if it was possible, became even wider. "Thanks. I mean, I've got some weirdass pyjamas in my closet, but I'm glad you seem to like them."

They both laughed at what the older boy had said, and when Jisung finally stepped inside, Minho closed the door and grinned at him.

" _Sooo_ , since I suck at cooking and my parents are coming home late today, I ordered some Chinese takeout for the both of us," Minho began. "Hope you're okay with that."

"I'm okay with it," Jisung shrugged. All of a sudden, he was aware of how _close_ he and the taller had become, Minho staring at him with this insupressible joy in his eyes. "Uhm..." he continued, throat dry.

"We can pass the time by watching something on the TV," Minho suggested before the awkwardness could get too much, and Jisung hurriedly nodded, glad the older had intervened at the right time.

And thus began even _more_ awkward moments. Granted, the first tv show they got started on was great and all, but Jisung, for the life of him, just _couldn't_ immerse himself in it. Not when someone like _Minho_ was present. The older male was just too breathtaking.

Jisung already knew Minho was a pretty cute guy, but that thought only solidified the more he heard the older's soft giggles whenever a funny scene came up on tv, and the more he caught sight of his dazzling smile whenever something amused him. He often found himself watching the grey haired male more than the _actual_ show.

Then came the moment when both males reached for the remote at the same time.

Something like sparks lit up underneath Jisung's skin when their hands touched, causing him to pull his hand away, and he felt all sorts of cornered with the way Minho watched him.

"Jisung?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Do I...make you scared?"

Jisung didn't know if he would've answered, but luckily, at that moment the doorbell rang, alerting the boys' attention.

Minho's dark, unreadable eyes left Jisung's face and stared at the door. "That should be the food. I'll go get it."

The time spent eating the (admittedly delicious) food was doused in pure silence that even the low-volumed tv couldn't fill. Jisung was too tongue-tied to say anything, and Minho seemed to be thinking hard about something.

"I-I'll throw the containers away," Jisung suggested as soon as he and Minho were done.

Minho nodded, and without saying anything else, Jisung made his way into the kitchen to throw the stuff away.

But then he felt someone behind him, and being as clumsy as they come, he slipped on nothing but he was soon quickly caught.

Jisung immediately knew it was Minho. His back was against Minho's chest, the older's hands gently holding him in place. Jisung's heartbeat raced erratically behind his ribcage, goosebumps forming along his skin as he felt Minho rest his chin on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Minho asked, voice soft next to Jisung's ear.

"Yeah..."

Jisung could feel Minho's heartbeat against his back, and it was just as quick as his own.

"Hmm," Minho replied. "Jisung, can I ask you a question?"

"O-Okay." Minho slowly nuzzled his face into his neck, drawing out a small gasp from the blond.

"Do I make you nervous? Please, be honest."

"I don't..." Jisung grew stiff as Minho's arms snaked around his waist. He felt like running away, but yet still Minho's arms made him feel _secure_. "I...you don't make me nervous..."

Chills raced down his spine when Minho turned him around, his arms still lightly resting at his sides.

"You sure?" Minho asked. His eyes yielded several emotions at the same time, and Jisung struggled to comprehend them all. "I want us to be comfortable around each other. I mean, I know you and Changbin are best friends, but sometimes...I wish you talked with me as freely as you do with him."

"I just -- Changbin and I have known each other since we were kids," Jisung explained. "He's always been easy to talk to, and you're..."

Minho's warm eyes stared at him expectantly, seeming to want something that Jisung wasn't sure he was ready to give. "I'm what?"

Jisung inhaled. "You're... _different_. I love talking to you, I do, but sometimes my emotions get the best of me and I end up acting like an idiot in front of you."

"You're not an idiot, Jisung."

"Yeah, well, I can't seem to even _think_ properly when I'm with you," the blond boy continued to ramble.

Minho let out a small smile. "And why is that?"

Jisung stared at the taller's hands which were now on his wrists, and wondered how it'd feel to hold them.

"I don't really know," Jisung answered. "Maybe I'm just being my usual awkward self."

Minho nodded, and then let Jisung go, regarding him with a fond look. "Okay, Jisung. I'm sorry if I bothered you with my questions."

"It's alright. You didn't bother me," Jisung reassured. He took a step back. "Uhm, what time is it?"

Minho shrugged. "Are you tired?"

"Kinda..."

"Then let's get you freshened up."

~🍓~

  
Despite the slight tension that still hung in the air, Jisung still had fun at Minho's place that night. The older started playing some hyper songs from his phone a couple seconds after they'd finished brushing their teeth, and Jisung couldn't resist the urge to act like some sort of pyjama-clad rockstar then and there. Minho had humoured him by joining him as well, and after both boys were done jamming out, they landed themselves in the older's room and on his bed.

Jisung stared at the ceiling, biting his lip, while Minho stared at _him_.

"What're you thinking 'bout?" Minho asked.

"How _amazing_ your bed feels," Jisung commented, smiling to himself.

"Hey," the older nudged Jisung's arm, "what about me?"

"You're cool too, I guess."

"Touché," Minho giggled. "That hurt a little bit too much."

Jisung finally watched him, heart dropping at the older boy's face so close to his. "I had a fun time."

"Yeah, well you're gonna have an even better time tomorrow." Minho grinned at him, eyes sparkling even in the dark. "I promise you."

Jisung was speechless, caught in the act of staring at the older again. They _both_ stared at each other, taking in their similar smiles and crinkling eyes.

"...Are you gonna sleep now?" Minho questioned.

"I might."

"Well, if you want, I can cuddle you. So you won't feel cold."

"Oh, okay..."

Jisung closed his eyes, truly a bit fatigued after the long day. But even with this though he still felt watched. He braved himself to ask, "Are you still looking at me, Minho?"

"Yeah," was the older's unapologetic reply. Jisung's heart skipped a beat.

"Y-You should sleep too, though."

"I will, soon..."

 _This is normal. We're just cuddling. There's nothing more to it_ , Jisung had to tell himself the minute he felt Minho lifting up the blankets over them to shield them from the cold. He repeated this over and over to himself like a mantra, especially when he felt Minho pulling him closer to his chest. _He just wants to cuddle with me_.

Minho, however, was unaware of the younger's inner turmoil. Instead, he glanced down at the boy's lovely face and long lashes, fighting the temptation to smooth over his hair and trace his thumb along the bow of his lips. So, he settled for holding him instead.

_What would he do if he finds out about you..._

~🍓~

**a/n** : thoughts?


	18. 17. body language.

~🍓~

  
When Jisung woke up that morning, he was alone.

More familiar with Minho's room this time, he sat up and looked around the area. He felt cold, and a little bit disappointed that the older male wasn't present, but luckily he was able to get rid of that feeling soon enough.

"He's probably outside or something," the blond mumbled to himself.

He stood up, deciding on heading into the nearest bathroom so he could fix up his appearance. He prayed Minho wouldn't suddenly show up while he was busy smoothing down his locks or something.

 _I wonder what Minho's doing right now_ , Jisung couldn't help but think, simultaneously cringing at the sight of his face in the mirror.

 _Yikes. I look like shit_ , he concluded. Hopefully, Minho wouldn't notice a thing. As soon as he turned on the tap he cupped his hands and washed his face with some cold water, trying to make himself feel _awake_ again.

As soon as he was done 'beautifying' his face, he tip-toed out of the bathroom, only to hear a series of voices down the hall. They were muffled and unrecognizable, and frankly they made Jisung a bit nervous.

 _Maybe it's Minho and his parents or something_ , Jisung concluded. With that, he inhaled and exhaled a giant breath. He had nothing to worry about. He _knew_ Minho's parents, and he knew they were both nice and friendly people.

Mumbling these assurances to himself repeatedly, he headed down the hall, his heartbeat getting quicker when the voices only grew louder.

And that's when the blond boy spotted them; Minho and his mother at a corner in the living room, seeming to be talking about something.

The grey haired male had his back turned, so Jisung couldn't exactly see his face or expression, but he caught sight of Minho's mother holding what appeared to be an _animal_.

Minho's mother was a pretty lady with short blond hair, graced with a personality that matched her attractive looks. Her ash-toned eyes were also extremely obsvervant, so it wasn't long before they locked with Jisung's from across the room.

Startled, Jisung looked away at first, heart thumping. He totally missed the way Mrs. Lee's expression faltered in the slightest bit before returning back to its usual amiable disposition.

"Jisung, good morning," She cheerfully greeted, which made Jisung curl _even_ further into himself.

He forced himself to look up and be a bit more _respectful_ , at least, and found out that Minho had turned around now, a smile on his face at seeing him.

"Uh, good morning Mrs. Lee," Jisung greeted. Minho gave him a little wave, which Jisung reciprocated.

" _And goooood morning to you too, Jisung_ ," a masculine voice suddenly emerged out of the kitchen saying, almost causing the seventeen-year-old boy to leap out of his skin. Good-natured laughter followed suit, to which Jisung couldn't help but join because _yeah_ , he _was_ a bit of a scaredy-cat.

Speaking of cats, Jisung could only get a glance at the brown-furred cat in Mrs. Lee's arms before she'd went off with it.

"New pet?" Jisung whispered to Minho in the kitchen, just as Mr. Lee, every bit as jovial and as orthodox as Minho, cracked some eggs into a pan.

Minho, in charge of flipping the pancakes, shrugged a bit too nonchalantly for Jisung's taste, but the younger was too distracted by those pancakes. It was no secret that he loved them.

"Uh, yeah," Minho responded, staring at the boy who stood close to him. A small smile was etched on his face at this, and Jisung noticed.

"What?" The younger questioned. Minho was giving him that look again, and whenever the taller boy did that it made his heartbeat skyrocket.

"I'm just staring at you," Minho admitted, keeping his voice low so his father wouldn't hear.

Jisung, every way perturbed by this confession, tried to find a way to get rid of how awkward and uncomfortable he now felt.

"U-Um, I could help with those pancakes. They can't be hard, right?" Jisung spoke up, alerting the attention of Minho's father.

" _Of course_ , Jisung," Mr. Lee remarked, casting a big grin the blon's way. "Anyone, with enough practice, can master the intricate art of pancake flipping. I'm happy you want to help."

"It's no problem, Mr. Lee," Jisung smiled at the man. He braved a glance at Minho, only to see the older was now wholly focused on flipping his own pancakes. Not a word was heard from his lips as his father began to converse with Jisung about his breakfast duties.

Of course, Jisung didn't like seeing this side of Minho and he didn't like the thought of the older being angry at him, but he couldn't find it in himself to speak up, at least not when he was now occupied with helping out with the rest of the pancakes.

 _I'll talk to him about it, I promise_ , Jisung thought when everyone sat at the table for breakfast. He wanted to get rid of his guilt.

Luckily, Minho's parents didn't make things even more strained. They filled the silence with their words and easygoing personalities, their chatter making up for the _lack_ of words coming from their son.

Jisung couldn't ignore it. As soon as the early breakfast was over, he looked at Minho, relieved that the older's parents had taken to the kitchen for the time being.

"Minho, you okay?" He chose to ask first. "I just noticed that you, uh, you didn't talk a lot. And it's really strange, because you like to talk, not that I mean anything bad by it -- "

Minho smiled at the rambling boy, obviously amused. "So you were _worried_ about me?"

"Uh, _yeah_. Yeah, I was. I mean, I still am." Jisung cleared his throat, busying himself with gathering up his used utensils and plate.

But even with this he could feel Minho's strong presence next to him. It wasn't like the older had a dominant personality or anything, but anytime he was near the atmosphere between them became charged and a mere brush of their arms or shoulders was enough to get Jisung's heart going _insane_.

"So, um, are you alright?" Jisung glanced at Minho again, alarmed when he realized the older boy had stepped clos _er_ to him during the few moments they'd been talking. It was certainly a bit anxiety-inducing, especially when Minho's parents were _right there_.

"I mean, yeah. I am. Just didn't feel like talking much this morning. I appreciate some silence once in a while."

"Cool."

"Especially when it's spent with you." Jisung's heart dropped. "I really liked having breakfast with you, Jisung."

"Same here," Jisung carried his empty plate, arms unsteady. "It was really nice, I guess."

No eye-contact was exchanged as both boys headed to the kitchen, and fortunately Minho didn't seem weirded out by Jisung's sudden and mild avoidant behaviour. He acted as he usually did, which made Jisung's nervousness all the more noticeable to himself. What the absolute fuck was happening to him?

"It's almost eight," Jisung finally spoke up a few minutes later after checking his phone and calling his parents and Changbin. "I should maybe, _probably_ , be heading home now."

"Hey, I really meant what I said when I said I want to take you to school. Which means you can get ready _here_ ," Minho replied, softly punching Jisung's arm. "Mom and Dad won't mind. They like having you around. And I'm sure your parents won't mind either."

"Hey, are you holding me hostage?" Jisung joked, punching Minho as well, but this time on his chest. And what he felt was nothing but lean muscle. He decided not to think _too_ much about that.

"Maybe I just might if you spend too much time in the shower. And it won't be good, since you have detention to go to," Minho answered. His eyes held that playful, teasing spark again that Jisung liked seeing, and he was glad the older boy seemed his normal self again.

"Oh no. I'm _sooo_ scared."

Minho flung his arm around Jisung and touseled his beach blond hair, leading them both into the hallway. " _Shut up_."

~🍓~

  
Late winter could be a bitch sometimes. Okay, maybe almost _all_ the time, but it certainly wasn't one at this moment.

Not when it allowed Han Jisung to be in possession of this rather aesthetically pleasing space-themed black hoodie that he'd recalled Minho wearing at least once during the time they'd spent knowing each other.

Brushing through his wild hair to make it, _well_ , less wild, he stepped out of Minho's bedrom only to meet Minho in the bathroom adjusting a white baseball cap on his head in front of the mirror.

His appearance clearly startled the usually assertive Minho, which was quite frankly hilarious and strange as well.

"I look _that_ scary?" Jisung questioned, only half-serious, but the grey haired male only shook his head, pulling his cap even lower.

"...No," Minho cracked a tiny smile. "You only caught me at a bad time, is all." He then pointed at Jisung's attire. "You look cute in my clothes."

"Uhh," Jisung stared down at the hoodie, throat a bit dry, "they're comfortable, but I think they're a little oversized."

"Still cute." He stepped closer to the younger male and lifted his hands up to a fazed Jisung's face, only to pull the hood over his head. "Now you look even cuter, Sungie."

Jisung, only slightly, felt like he was going into cardiac arrest, but thankfully he looked away before he could do something to potentially embarrass himself. He watched as Minho stared at himself in the mirror again, as if trying the pick apart the flaws he didn't have, at least to Jisung. To the blond, Minho was a well-adjusted individual with an amazing personality and great looks to top it all off. Sometimes he would feel a bit insecure beside Minho but then the older would smile at him and treat him with respect, and then Jisung would forget all about his previous thoughts and pondering.

Like right now. He'd snapped out of his thoughts to see Minho's gaze on him, his lips forming this pleased half-smile that made him embarrassed he'd been caught daydreaming.

"What were you thinking about? ... _Me_?" Minho chuckled, sly.

" _Yeah, right_ ," Jisung scoffed. Oh how right Minho had been.

~🍓~

"I don't usually drive but I don't plan on us taking any public transport today," Minho explained as soon as Jisung was done buckling up beside him. "Luckily for me dad isn't using his car today."

Jisung nodded. Surely, riding a bus together with Minho was _far_ different from being alone in a car with him. The space was smaller too, and this made him want to freak out. But, he knew he couldn't just freak out everytime he had the urge to. "Okay. I also really like this car, so sleek."

"I know right? Makes me look like a cool super secret agent," Minho laughed, expression close to childlike as he started the car. Jisung smiled at this, before staring out the window at the houses the black chevrolet started to pass. "I'm surprised dad even let me borrow his precious car so easily."

Jisung chuckled, looking at the other. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Crashed my old neighbour's car off the side of the road at sixteen," Minho deadpanned, "Luckily Mr. Nam was pretty chill about the little damage sustained."

Jisung's eyes were wide. "Holy shit. Really?"

Minho gripped the steering wheel, a nearly manic smile plastered on his features. "Yeah, really. I mean, the car was pretty old already and I wasn't in the right state of mind then either."

Jisung blinked, not really knowing how to take this new piece of information. He'd never expected something like that happening to the older boy. "Uh, woah. I hope you were okay though, when that happened."

Minho shrugged. "Yeah, I was. Eventually."

Jisung wanted to question the older further on his puzzling response, but they'd gotten closer to their dreaded high school and the building momentarily caught his attention.

"Oh great. Hell awaits," he commented. He giggled when Minho laughed at his statement. 

  
The silver haired student gradually came to a stop, digging out a parking spot for the fancy car and soon turning off the ignition, which brought about some silence.

" _So_ , uh," Jisung smoothed out Minho's hoodie, "I'll meet you here at like, 11:45?"

"You bet on it, Jisung," Minho saluted him. He smiled when Jisung giggled once more.

"Cool. So, I'll be leaving now then."

"Yeah, sure."

Wind nipped at Jisung's body as soon as he stepped out of the car, colouring his ears and nose pink. He immediately pulled on Minho's hoodie's draw strings, waved at the older, and then jogged into the open school compound.

Minho stared at him until he disappeared, and as soon as he was alone, lowered his head and pulled off his cap, trying to pat down the grey cat-like ears that had sprung free.

_Good gracious. Ears, can you calm down, please..._

_~🍓~_

  
Class 3-C was where the detention was held at, so Jisung sluggishly made his way into that part of the school, hating the way the place looked so _deserted_ at this time.

He realized he was early when he stepped into the quiet classroom. Meaning, the teacher wasn't around but the students had already chosen their seats, including Hwang Hyunjin.

Jisung avoided the taller's stares and opted for a seat at the back where he could look out of the window peacefully. Looking around, he realized that there were eight students in the class, including himself. Two girls and six boys. And honestly, majority of them looked dead inside and _this_ close to eternal slumber.

"Hey, psst. Han." A boy called out, alerting Jisung. He stared at the guy, noting his smiling face and midnight blue hair. Jisung immediately recognized the guy as Choi Yeonjun.

"Yeah?"

"Why're you here?" Yeonjun whispered. "I thought you were like a goody-two-shoes or something."

Jisung rolled his eyes but smiled, knowing the guy didn't intend for his words to be taken further than face-value.

"I'm not," he replied, keeping his voice really low, "I only got in trouble because Hyunjin and I got in a fight."

Yeonjun gasped. A little dramatic, but okay. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah. How don't you know about it?"

"Basically skipped school the whole week." Yeonjun leaned into his chair, chewing some gum. "Couldn't have known."

"Oh," Jisung nodded, facing front. At this point, the teacher, a rather young music fanatic called Miss Jang, cat-walked with her heels into the classroom.

" _Crap, Jangbox is here,_ " Yeonjun muttered, referring to the pun made up of the music teacher's family name and the word 'jukebox'. " _And_ she's holding a set of papers too. Dammit."

Jisung could share in Yeonjun's dispair. He really didn't want to partake in any sort of school work today, but alas it seemed that Miss Jang had other plans.

"Good morning students," she began after slamming her stack of papers on the teacher's desk. "As you all know, you will be serving detention with me for three hours today. But, I firmly believe that time spent productively... is time spent wisely. So you all will be working in pairs today on these worksheets I've printed. I shall also provide sheets where you will answer the questions you encounter."

" _Oh, Jangbox is seriously reaching..._ " Yeonjun whispered. Jisung on the other hand couldn't believe what he was hearing.

A girl with neon green hair rose her hand.

"What is it?" Miss Jang asked opposingly.

"What's the actual point of this? Are we even being graded?"

"It's a learning opportunity. And no, you're not being graded, only marked. Perhaps regard the knowledge you'll acquire today as the grade."

Jisung felt like running out of the classroom at that moment. He'd been anticipating the sleep he'd thought he would get, and now here he was, being forced to work with someone to complete an assignment. Things couldn't get any worse than this.

But oh god, they _did_.

"I will be chosing the partners as well."

This, naturally caused an uproar which Miss Jang collectively snapped shut with her patronizing glare.

"By no means see this as some sort of punishment. It is for you to grow as individuals and form better connections with people you aren't inherently familiar with..."

Jisung zoned out, trying to regulate his heart by breathing heavily. That is, until he heard --

"...jun and Choi Beomgyu, Han Jisung and Hwang Hyunjin."

_Wait, what??_

Jisung didn't know what was more shocking; the fact that he was now paired with Hyunjin of all people, or the fact that not too long after Miss Jang's announcement, said boy had taken the seat closest to Jisung, looking as bored as one could possibly be.

"Pass the question and answer sheets around please," Miss Jang stated from the front, being her infuriatingly proper self, as always.

Jisung didn't want to share a table with Hyunjin, but he realized he had no other choice. So, he was just going to get this over with and hope that those three hours of detention passed by really quickly.

His and Hyunjin's question paper in hand, he proceeded to glance through the passages, not really intending on saying anything to Hyunjin. In his defense though, Hyunjin never said anything either; he didn't even seem to want to _look_ at Jisung either.

 _Okay. I'll just answer the questions. Hyunjin will tag along if he wants_ , Jisung thought, satisfied with this strategy.

But, as Jisung began to really read through the worksheet, he started getting highly frustrated because he couldn't understand more than half of the entries. And, Miss Jang being Miss Jang, decided to insert as many fancy words in there as possible, literally turning the blond's brain into a pile of mush. This was just pure _torture_ , plain and simple.

Through it all, Hyunjin stayed quiet, angering Jisung even further.

"You could at least try to help, you know?" Jisung snapped at a certain point, majorly fed up with everything.

Hyunjin grabbed the pen, and to Jisung's dismay, commenced with jotting down the answers without much thought. The younger sat there speechless as Hyunjin went through the worksheet like it was a piece of cake, breezing past the questions as if he'd memorized everything prior. In fifteen minutes, he was done.

Hyunjin bit his lip and dropped the pen. "...How's that for helping, huh."

Jisung gulped, staring at the older boy. "Uh... _well_...that was... _fast_...?"

Hyunjin snorted, meeting Jisung's eyes for like a brief second. "Wow."

Jisung picked up the answer sheet and read through the answers, stunned when they all seemed correct and had great grammar and punctuation as well.

He looked up and caught Hyunjin's stare, which was quickly dropped. _Okay, weird_.

"I -- This is _pretty good._ You did a...great job." It felt strange complimenting Hyunjin, but it was fine since Jisung meant what he said. "Better than I thought, actually."

Hyunjin nodded quite stiffly. "Okay. Thanks, I guess."

"Are you boys done?" Miss Jang asked, suddenly appearing in front of them. Her long cotton sweater only made her look more swan-like.

"Yes, Miss Jang," Jisung spoke, handing their papers over to her. He felt kind of proud when he witnessed the satisfied look on her face as she read through the first answer.

"Very well then. I'll correct it at the front. I have some books too as well, if you two have any interest in reading something."

Jisung tightly smiled. "No, thank you."

"Hyunjin?"

Hyunjin just shook his head.

When the teacher was gone, Jisung expected Hyunjin to leave, but when the older didn't he didn't say anything about it. At least, the black haired boy wasn't troubling him now. And that was good.

Hyunjin had a bag of sorts on his lap, and as Jisung busied himself with trying to use his phone as discreetly as possible, the taller did something else.

"Thought you said you didn't wanna read," Jisung muttered under his breath. "You're reading right now."

"We all know Jangbox would only give you historical themed books to read if you said yes. Bonus points if you ace the flash quiz she gives you afterwards," Hyunjin answered, brows furrowed.

"That's...kinda true."

They didn't talk for the rest of their time spent at detention. When Miss Jang handed them their papers to look over their answers, Jisung thanked Hyunjin because they got a full mark, and that was it.

Eventually, 11:45 AM arrived.

"You're now dismissed," Miss Jang told the class, and immediately everyone filed out, Jisung included.

Entering into the student parking area near the school whilst hugging himself, Jisung spotted a certain chevrolet.

Unbeknownst to him then, Hyunjin had followed not too closely behind, curious as to why Jisung was walking into the student parking lot when he didn't even have a car.

Jisung only stopped walking when he caught sight of Minho with a new set of clothes, a pair of sunshades covering his eyes.

"Minho!" He waved.

The older pulled out his shades with a flick of his wrist, bright grin on display. " _Get in loser, we're going shopping!_ "

Jisung was just glad no one else was around. He entered the car and poked Minho's rib with his elbow.

"Seriously? Mean Girls?"

"What? I love that movie," Minho turned on the ignition. Looking out the window, he spotted Hyunjin loitering around at the back. But, he didn't say a word about it as he drove off.

~🍓~

**a/n:** thoughts? 


	19. 18. something's up.

~🍓~

  
Jisung really, _really_ loved this feeling he got whenever he was around Minho. It was like free-falling, drifting through the clouds while bathing under the golden sun. It was a feeling that made him feel light-headed, yet free, one that calmed his heart yet drove it into its breaking point. Sure, those sunshiney emotions didn't make much sense to the teen (cliché teenage angst was what he understood best), but for once, Jisung didn't mind them. All he knew was that he was happy, and kinda content with how things were playing out.

"Fuck yeah! I won, again!"

 _Except now_.

The bratty preteen Jisung had been battling it against in some basketball game the latter had came across during the time spent at the giant arcade Minho'd taken them to had a wide shit-eating grin that matched his spoken words. It annoyed Jisung to bits, mostly he wanted to win, and if he won then he would be able to win a freaking plushie. And _no_ , that plushie wasn't for _him_. He wanted to win it for Minho since he didn't want the older teen thinking he sucked at arcade games.

He was actually okay at playing them. Today just so happened to be one of his _bad days_. Yeah, that'd been it.

Minho leant on the wall off to the side, a calm yet amused smile growing on his face as he studied Jisung, who now pouted at him. Not only was the older's unrelenting stare starting to make Jisung's cheeks hot, but Jisung was also beginning to fear that he was disappointing Minho in a way by not winning.

"Jisung, are you _sure_ you don't want me to help?" Minho asked.

Jisung shook his head, yet his cheeks turned an even darker shade of red when Minho walked over to him anyway, adjusting the cap on his head in the process. The chubby boy standing next to Jisung narrowed his eyes, his face crinkling in a judgemental way as he took in Minho's appearance.

"Haven't your parents taught you not to stare at strangers?" Minho asked the boy with a wry smile, a chilly aura surrounding him.

"Of course. They also taught me not to be a loser like your _boyfriend_ over there," the boy sneered, cackling as soon as he spotted how the remains of Minho's smile dropped entirely.

Jisung was pissed. Of course he was, since he felt like he was seconds away from boiling over at the boy's extremely rude comment. But, his mind just couldn't stop replaying the younger's words about him being Minho's boyfriend over and over again in his head. _Do we really look like that?_ The words echoed loudly until he couldn't think straight about anything else, and his heartbeat pounded. The feeling only magnified when Minho never properly addressed that little assumption.

The friendly air surrounding Minho was gone as he grabbed a basketball, a look of determination crossing his features. The preteen only grinned, his face forming this _canine-like_ smirk.

"When I win, you'll apologize to Jisung for acting like a total fucking dick, you hear me?" All traces of niceness had been wiped off Minho, and this new character he had on both intimidated and scared Jisung a little.

"Come on, Min," Jisung found himself whispering, not really liking how the older was glaring at the boy. "It's fine if you just win. _I'm_ fine with it if you just win." He chuckled uneasily. "Besides, we can both just play some other game."

But Jisung might as well never have said anything, because Minho's tense expression still stayed the same. The grey haired male didn't even _look_ like he'd been listening to any word Jisung had said.

"Deal, I guess," the boy standing next to Minho replied, shooting Jisung a fleeting glance that irritated him, "but then again, I'm probably gonna win, so."

This proved to anger Minho even further. "Never celebrate too early."

Jisung could only watch as Minho and the other male battled it out, scoring goal upon goal until the scores got increasingly more even. In any other situation, Jisung would've been happy, _proud_ even, because of how amazing the taller was being at this game, but now he was just worried. Minho might've been in the lead, yes, but if stares could kill someone, then the preteen situated beside Minho would've been in the grave a long time ago.

So when Minho emerged the winner -- several times -- Jisung couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"You cheated," the youngest male accused, his tone condensensing.

"Dude, just piss off, will you?" Jisung rolled his eyes, genuinely annoyed by the kid.

"I demand a rematch," the boy continued.

"And I demand," Minho began, the calmness of his voice rendering the boy speechless, "that you apologize to Jisung."

The eye contact they exchanged was heated, and so, so strange. They were complete strangers, Jisung reasoned, so why did Minho look at the boy with such _contempt_?

The boy eventually relented, something flashing in his dark eyes as he readjusted the beanie on his head. "Sorry."

Jisung sighed, wanting to leave this area as soon as possible. "Okay -- "

"Oh, you're not apologizing to me," Minho interrupted. "You're apologizing to _Jisung_. So say it _properly_."

Jisung didn't hesitate to place his hand on the small of the taller's back, trying to alert his attention. Any other time his face would be flushing due to their close proximity, but he was too alarmed right now to distract himself with that. "Minho, it's _fine_. Let's just leave."

"Oh would you look at that? Your boyfriend's coming to the rescue, once again," the boy spoke up, a satisfied smile sneaking over his features when Minho's jaw clenched.

"Okay. I don't know what your problem is, but I've had enough of it. Go annoy someone else kid!" Jisung spat, agitation lacing his words. He proceeded to hold Minho and pull him away (cute plushie be damned), but to his utmost shock Minho'd already shortened the distance between him and the preteen, his hands roughly fisting the latter's shirt.

"Minho!" Jisung exclaimed. All around them were excited chatter and artificial noises coming from the different set of arcade games cornering them. No one was noticing one totally pissed off guy who looked _this_ close to beating up some asshole kid, and that, in every way, was a good thing.

He sped over to the two males, a chill descending down his spine at the weird, guttural energy he was now being hit with. He ignored it though to hold Minho and grab his attention before he did something he would totally regret later.

" _Minho_ ," Jisung hissed. "Minho, let's go. Please."

"Yeah, listen to him," the boy in Minho's hold laughed, his eerily prominent canines on display.

"I will fucking _crush_ you if you don't shut your damn mouth," Minho snapped.

At this point, a few onlookers had came across the scene, which had been the last thing Jisung wanted. Underneath the strobe lights illuminating that area of the arcade, Minho looked nearly _frightening_.

The preteen grinned, canines and all. "I would like to see you _try_."

As soon as Minho raised his fist, Jisung screamed his name. And luckily, this time, it attracted his sole attention, mostly because Jisung had never raised his voice at him like that before.

The grey haired male looked like he'd begun to snap out of this sort of _daze_ he'd been in, but his hands were still on the youngest male like a death grip.

"Jisung..."

"Minho, what the fuck is up with you?!" Jisung exclaimed, unable to mask his confusion as well as his disappointment. "You mean you were really ready to hit some _stupid kid_ because he didn't apologize to me? You know what, you can do whatever you want. I'm gonna go."

Minho immediately let the boy go. "Jisung, wait -- "

But Jisung didn't listen to him. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he marched off, his head getting swarmed with a tornado of thoughts that gave him even more anxiety. The behaviour Minho'd displayed only a couple seconds ago had been so uncharacteristic of him. Jisung'd only seen it one other time, and that had been towards Hyunjin. But at that time, Jisung had only perceived the older's actions as a one time thing.

But now...

Jisung exhaled, realizing he was now standing in front of the bathrooms. Promptly, he entered the one for the males and inched over to the sink, finally able to stare at himself through the mirror.

His eyes were wide, unrest pulsing through his irises. He looked shocked, very unlike his usual self. Before he knew it he'd flicked on the tap, staring blankly at the cool water gushing out of it. Cupping some of it with his palms, he washed his face and tried to settle his racing heartbeat for a few silent moments.

Jisung's breath hitched as soon as the door opened, revealing a face he'd gotten angry at minutes prior. The anger the blond had beared for Minho dissipated the second he spotted the look on his face.

"Jisung... I'm so... I'm so sorry," Minho whispered. He stepped in, slowly, as if he feared Jisung would lash out at him if he'd rushed in instead. His obvious consideration for how Jisung felt made the younger start to feel guilt regarding the way he'd treated Minho earlier. "I didn't know what came over me."

Jisung didn't reply until only a few inches separated the both of them. "I -- It's fine, Minho. I'm sorry as well. I was just...shocked."

And Jisung was telling the truth. The Minho he was seeing now seemed like the complete opposite of the one he'd witnessed back at that ball game.

"It's my fault," Minho hurriedly explained, his eyes downcast. His fingers slowly, _softly_ , held Jisung's, and the younger let him. With his index finger running along the surface of the younger's hand, he said his next words. "He just... He got on my nerves. And usually, usually it takes a lot for me to get angry. But he...he just made it extremely difficult for me to stay calm. And it got even worse when he insulted you..."

Jisung's heart rate picked up when he watched Minho bring his hand up to his lips. The guilt weighing down on him cleared off, and in its place stood that familiarly warm feeling that clouded his head the minute Minho did things like _that_ to him. But then, confusion wormed its way into his thoughts, because although Jisung liked it whenever the older acted tender towards him, he still didn't know _why_ he did the things he did.

"Please accept my apology," Minho let out, his breath fanning over Jisung's fingers. The fleeting touch of his lips on his hand made Jisung shiver.

"I accept your apology, Minho," Jisung replied, smiling when he could literally _feel_ the relief rolling off the older. " _But_."

Minho looked up, his earnest eyes filled to the brim with worry for the younger's next words.

"I'd agreed to come here to hang out and have fun with you," Jisung began. "The reason I'd taken up the game with that kid was 'cause I wanted to win you a plushie."

"Oh, really?" Minho asked amusedly, giving Jisung a glimpse of his normal self. The younger nodded, bravely closing in the distance between them to hold the older and look him in the eye.

"Yeah, really." Jisung had no idea what he was doing, but he didn't mind it. "And I'm still planning on winning you a plushie. And this time, there won't be anymore annoying kids present."

At this, Minho chuckled. Jisung didn't let his gaze waver, especially not when Minho's arms slipped around his hips, holding him in place. And the blond liked it, just like how he liked it whenever the taller held him close or cuddled him. It made him feel safe.

"And," Jisung decided to test his luck. He rose his right hand and carefully, nervously, stroked Minho's lightly freckled cheek. His fingers were shaking, but he hoped Minho didn't notice with the way the latter's eyes followed his every movement. "After I've won you that plushie, I still need to ask you something."

Minho's gaze hardened with seriousness, but he nodded. He understood. Then, with his brown eyes boring into Jisung's, he leaned forwards, and then the younger felt a pair of lips on his jaw. It startled Jisung -- startled his _heart_ \-- and then he gulped, because Minho's fingers were now in his hair, softly tugging through the strands.

The older's kisses were as light as a breeze against Jisung's skin, but left a trail of heat at their wake. They moved upwards, closer and closer to Jisung's lips and made his heartbeat skyrocket. The blond didn't know how to feel, but he couldn't move away. He _didn't_ want to move away.

Minho paused just mere millimeters away from where Jisung's lips were, but by that point the younger's heart was so loud it was the only thing he could hear. It echoed through the walls of his chest, right as Minho worked his fingers down his hair like he would break under his touch, and then pressed one last, lingering kiss to his temple before he finally let go.

"Wouldn't want us to have our first kiss in some bathroom, would we?" Minho breathed, a teasing lilt in his voice. Jisung was speechless, but he managed to shakily nod, at least.

Minho smiled, and then grazed Jisung's cheek with his lips once more. "Jisung, you need to _breathe_."

"I -- " Jisung's heart stuttered as he inhaled a huge breath. "I... _yeah_. I'm -- I'm breathing. Yes."

"Sung..." Minho whispered, his face still extremely close to Jisung's. "God, you're so cute..."

Jisung's face was like that of a stop sign. "I-I'm not. Uhm, we should -- we should probably go n-now."

Luckily, Minho nodded. But not before pecking the exposed skin of Jisung's neck. His sudden clinginess came as a huge surprise to the younger, as well as his unexpected cheek kiss. The thought alone still made Jisung lightheaded. Fuck, since Minho'd done that to him, then it meant he'd had to have felt... _something_ for him, right? Jisung didn't really want to think about it right now.

"Let me hold your hand," Minho suggested. After Jisung agreed, their hands locked as they left the bathrooms. "And...yeah, after you've won me a plushie, we can... _talk_." At this, his fingers continued to run over Jisung's, contentment washing over his features. Jisung wished _he_ could feel that calm.

"Yeah... That's the plan."

~🍓~

"I love pandas," Minho gushed as he placed a soft, medium-sized plushie of the sort on his lap. And yeah, while the stuffed animal was cute in every right, Jisung still couldn't shake off the doubt and anxiety that stayed prevalent in his thoughts. 

He and Minho were seated at one of the few tables surrounding a stand that sold an array of tasty sandwiches. Before this, they'd played quite a few games, managing to alleviate the awkwardness surrounding them for a while, and after Jisung'd finally gotten the older his promised plushie, they'd found themselves here.

  
"Jisung, you okay? You're not eating your sandwich," Minho said. He chuckled as the younger almost immediately took a bite and swallowed it down just as quick.

"I _am_ eating," Jisung whined, but couldn't help but chuckle as well at how ridiculous he was being. "Okay... _fine_. I don't really feel like eating right now."

"Is it because of what happened at the bathroom?" Minho asked, as straight-to-the-point as ever. His honesty only rushed blood to Jisung's ears, colouring them red.

"Uhm, k-kinda." Jisung coughed. "And uh, the way you acted with the guy earlier. _But_ ," he busied himself with picking at his sandwich, trying to distract himself from Minho's attentive stare, "I _totally_ understand why you lashed out. I mean, kids can be real brats. I would know."

Minho snorted. "Really."

"What?"

"You're saying you were a bratty kid? I don't believe you."

"I _was_ though," Jisung pressed, biting on his lower lip. He missed the way Minho's eyes totally zeroed in on that action of his. "I was pretty bad tempered, especially during the start of middle school. I didn't take too kindly to strangers, and whenever someone did bad to me I had to retaliate as soon as possible."

Jisung laughed when Minho snorted again. " _What_? Seriously, I was a total dick back then."

"So what made you change?" Minho questioned. His voice lowered as he asked, "Me?"

"Ha, you wish." Jisung tried to ignore the way Minho's lower vocal range made him feel. The feeling was only amplified when he recalled the events that occurred between them earlier. But there was nothing he could do about it. Clingy Minho was back again.

The silver haired male slid his hands over Jisung's, and Jisung suddenly felt like he could not breathe yet again. "So, what happened to make you change?"

"I just...had a change of heart, I guess. I mean, after pissing off so many people someone's bound to change their ways eventually," Jisung replied, keeping his answer a bit vague. He didn't really feel like opening up on the stuff that'd taken place between him and a certain guy on Valentine's Day many years ago. Didn't want Minho's opinion of him to change.

The older's hands were still laced with his, providing this sense of security and comfort Jisung almost always longed for, and his words multiplied those feelings.

"It's okay if you don't wanna talk much about it now," Minho started, grinning at Jisung once they locked eyes. "But always know that, no matter what, I won't ever judge you for anything. I'm always there to listen whenever you want, and...and I hope you're willing to do the same for me as well."

Jisung nodded. "Yeah, of course." And he meant it.

"And... About that kiss."

Almost immediately Jisung's heart clenched, his breath getting caught in his throat.

"Did you...like it?" Minho asked.

"I -- Yeah. I...I liked it." Jisung braved a glance at the older, only to blush and stare at the table when Minho just continued to watch him. "You know, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't stare so much."

"Why? Are my stares turning you on?" Minho laughed. "Didn't know you were a light switch."

Jisung rolled his eyes. He snuck the taller another glance but had to avert his stare the second the older began eating his sandwich 'seductively'. "Minho, ugh, shut up."

"Ooh, this sandwich tastes like heaven," Minho moaned, looking five seconds away from doubling over in laughter.

"You're an ass."

"I _have_ an ass, yes."

"You're a total asshole."

"Would you like to test out this theory?"

Jisung rolled his eyes, giggling. "Good god, where did your parents get you from?"

"Oh, I don't know, from an orphanage?"

Jisung froze, staring hard at the older, who looked a tad too nonchalant considering the kind of information he'd just exposed about himself. "...Minho?"

"Yeah?"

"Your parents... They adopted you?" Jisung questioned. His tone was cautious and careful. He didn't want to say anything that'd set the elder off.

Minho shrugged, a smile growing on his face. He looked attractive like this, handsome with his grey curls underneath his cap framing his face and his brown eyes twinkling as they creased. "Well, yeah Jisung. I don't know who my biological parents are, but my parents now are the best parents anyone can ever ask for."

Now that Minho had clarified it, Jisung realized the obvious differences between Minho's and his parents' looks. Mr and Mrs Lee had never really looked like Minho at all. Their similarities had laid within their personalities instead.

"Yeah," Jisung agreed, "your parents are really great people."

"I know."

"Wow, egoistical much?"

"Shhh," Minho grinned. "I think..."

"You think what?"

"That you should get to know more about me."

Jisung nodded, trying to play it cool at the fact that the older teen was now voluntarily sharing facts about him even though he was freaking out on the inside. "Sure, I guess."

"Mmh, let's begin, shall we? I really like the colour purple. I was born on October 25th. I used to participate in a lot of sports when I was younger. I have a mole next to my bellybutton. I love milkshakes. I dye my hair a lot, and I'm taller than you. I also wonder what it'd be like to..."

"What it'd be like to do what?" Jisung rose an eyebrow.

"What it'd be like to kiss you... On the lips," Minho replied, biting his lip.

"Oh, really," Jisung choked, unable to look the elder in the eye. "Uhm, that's uh, nice?"

Minho laughed, looking genuinely happy. "Yeah, it is..."

Pink bloomed across Jisung's cheeks.

"I actually -- " Minho began, only for his phone's ringtone to disrupt him. Jisung was honestly kind of grateful for that.

The older grabbed his phone and tapped it. "Oh, it's Felix. I think he and Changbin are currently at the dance right about now." He pressed the device to his ear.

Jisung nodded, remembering his friends. He hoped they were having fun, even though _he_ personally didn't categorize dances as 'fun'. He watched Minho, noticing how the older's eyebrows had furrowed.

"Minho?" He asked. Minho had grown super stiff.

The older suddenly stood up. His darkened eyes met Jisung's from across the table. "We need to leave now."

"W-What?" Jisung stuttered, forcing himself to his feet. "What happened?"

He raced after Minho until they left the arcade to where the older's car was parked.

"Minho!"

Minho stopped, promptly turning around to face him.

The Minho Jisung had been bantering with only minutes ago was nowhere to be seen. Now, he looked visibly upset, his lopsided, teasing grin completely wiped off. "We need to go get Changbin."

~🍓~

**a/n** :

thoughts?


End file.
